Cheque – Mates, a business within The Lamson Group, has purchased and installed a Ricoh Pro C9210 digital cut-sheet press as part of its digital refresh program.
The trade-only print production and communication company has been in business since 1990. The Ricoh purchase is the first time the company has sourced a printer from a supplier other than Fujifilm or HP in its early days.
Cheque – Mates began its digital refresh program in July 2021. At that time, research was undertaken to determine what alternatives were available in the broader market that could potentially meet the company’s print requirements.
“The technology selection process is very important for our business as we are ultimately investing on behalf of our channel partners,” The Lamson Paragon Group of Companies CEO Rodney Frost said.
“Our technology needs to deliver as we have a lot of companies in the trade relying on us. We spent a significant amount of time carefully assessing equipment from a variety of vendors before creating a shortlist of three which included Konica Minolta, Fujifilm, and Ricoh.”
Multiple demonstrations were then arranged in the showroom of each vendor during which printer performance, raster image processors and outputs were examined. Once this had been completed a decision was made to invest in the Ricoh Pro C9210.
The Ricoh Pro C9210 is a high-capacity digital printer that can deliver high-quality colour prints at up to 135ppm on a variety of media types up to 600 µm thick and has a print resolution of 2400 x 4800 dpi.
“We were very impressed with the quality of the engineering of the machine together with the consistency of the output. During the testing process the Ricoh printer did not experience a single paper jam which is remarkable. Our industry is spoilt by the options that we have in machinery at present, however the Ricoh Pro C9210 stood out for our needs,” Frost said.
Frost added that the new Ricoh printer is being used on a diverse range of jobs at Cheque – Mates with print runs anywhere between 50 and 50,000 sheets.
“We are also achieving productivity improvements because of the significantly improved uptime. The rated speed in a brochure isn’t always necessarily what you see come to fruition as actual production output,” Frost said.
“Jobs can be completed more quickly which means we can achieve improved output volumes and faster results for our partners.”
According to Frost, it is likely Cheque – Mates will invest in additional Ricoh equipment in the future to keep up with client demands.
“With the experience that we have enjoyed with Ricoh, we have a strategic partner for the long-term,” he mentioned.
Ricoh Graphic Communications national sales manager Mark Moro said Cheque – Mates’ investment in the Pro C9210 demonstrates that it is the platform of choice for the digital print needs of Australia’s preeminent printers.
“Cheque – Mates is one of Australia’s leading trade-only print and communications providers with an outstanding reputation of exceeding the exacting needs of other printers, print managers and agencies. We are delighted to have Cheque – Mates join the growing list of Australia’s leading print providers that have made the switch to Ricoh as their preferred print partner,” Moro said.
“The feedback we receive is that the Pro C9210 offers an unmatched combination of outstanding print quality, productivity, ease of use, flexibility and reliability that enables these printers to support print business momentum. We look forward to a long and fruitful partnership with Cheque – Mates.”
Comment below to have your say on this story.
If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.
Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter