Blue Star is producing a new range of specialty postcards for the company best known for its patented 'concertina cards'.
Z-Card managing director Rodney Serhan said the Z-Postcards, which were launched in August, were an "all-in-one mail solution" that could be "personalised, plastic-wrapped and mailed in-house". They come with credit card-sized concertina cards attached.
Serhan told ProPrint the Z-Postcards stood out from other direct mail and would help businesses reach clients "faster and more effectively than ever before".
UK-based Z-Card has offices in 64 countries. The Australian head office in Sydney has 10 staff and the company has had a production facility in Auckland since June, said Serhan.
Blue Star has supplied Z-Card since 2005 and produces about 80% of its Australian work. Other local suppliers include Finsbury Green, SOS Print & Media Group, Immij, Bright Print Group, STI Lilyfield, Southern Colour, Centrum Printing, IPG Print, Fineline Printing and Kingprint, said Serhan.
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The company's most popular product is the Z-Card, which is a double-printed concertina sheet with two stiff covers.
Serhan said the cards were aimed at consumers that were "mobile, information-saturated, time- and attention-poor".
"The niche we have developed is in getting complicated messages into a format that people are prepared to keep in their pocket or wallet," he said.
Serhan told ProPrint that the company's clients included American Express, MasterCard, Optus, Toyota, McDonalds, Tourism Australia, Cricket Australia and Sony. It also created a Z-Card in June for New Zealand's Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment as part of its promotional push at London’s World Travel Market, he added.
Serhan said printers could supply artwork to the company, which would then print, fold, bind and pack the jobs ready for dispatch. He also said they could print orders themselves and then get them finished at trade prices.
The company has always done its own finishing because no suitable equipment existed when it was founded in 1992. The machinery, which includes a patented binder, a pharmaceutical folding machine and a ram-punch, is based in Blue Star's Silverwater factory, said Serhan.
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