Printers that sign up to ICON can get access to BJ Ball’s range of paper for digital presses, including HP Indigo, Konica Minolta, Canon, Ricoh and Lanier. 

They will also gain access to the merchant’s online ordering portal.

Perhaps the most groundbreaking part of the ICON offering is the i-consignment functionality, which is a response to the quick turnaround demanded in the digital print world.

BJ Ball installs racking within a customer’s plant. These stocks remain BJ Ball’s property until the printer goes online and orders stock. The printer can then grab the required paper, whether one pack or many, and start printing on it straight away. After stock is used, BJ Ball is automatically told this needs to be replenished and can send paper on the next delivery.

According to the paper merchant, “The opportunity to provide short turnaround times on the correct stock at a competitive price has never been easier.”

BJ Ball marketing and business development manager Tony Bertrand said: “It helps us manage our inventory to ensure our customers have the right stock in the right place at the right time.”

He said that BJ Ball’s own analysis had shown that a printer turning over around $1 million to $1.5 million a year could save up to $50,000 by switching over to ICON.

The first beta user was Acorn Press, in the Sydney suburb of Brookvale. Managing director Craig Foley told the PacPrint Daily: “It is like BJ Ball having part of the their factory in my plant.”

Acorn uses the ICON range on its Fuji Xerox 800 digital press, and Foley said BJ Ball was now its sole supplier of digital grades.

“We jumped on board with BJ Ball when the ICON system came in. They offered us the system. It is easy – it takes my mind off it.”

[Related: More PacPrint news]

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