Prime Imaging, celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, started in downtown Toronto as a typesetting house. Currie’s career with the company began in 1989 as bookkeeper. He advanced to office manager and eventually moved into sales. Currie became a part owner 10 years ago, after the untimely death of one of the company’s two founders, and he took over the operation in 2003.
Over the past 19 years he’s witnessed the business’s evolution. As traditional typesetting faded, the company went digital, incorporating scanning and outputting film (services it still offers today). Then around 1996, while attending a trade show with the company’s founders, Currie spotted an Encad wide format poster printer. “I told them, ‘I think I can sell that output to our customers,’” he recalls. Before long, the first inkjet printer led to a second and a third, and Prime has been developing its wide format business ever since. Currie continues to trawl industry trade shows keeping up to date on the latest technologies available.
The company’s current spacious location accommodates the demands of wide format print production, with an arsenal that includes HP thermal inkjet printers, an Océ LightJet for imaging on photographic paper, a ColorSpan 72s solvent ink printer, and most recently a Fujifilm Acuity HD 2504 flatbed UV printer and a Zund digital die cutting machine. The company also handles production printing with Xerox 5000 and 6060 colour printers.
“As much as this is a capital-intensive business, the new technologies are bringing the cost of doing business down,” reasons Currie. “We’ve been able to become more competitive while requiring fewer skilled operators.” For example, he claims the flatbed’s ability to print directly to rigid substrates delivers a 30 percent difference in labour, because they are able to avoid the step of mounting prints to a board. With more work moving to the flatbed, he’s been able to reduce staff in the mounting and laminating department from two people per shift to one per shift.
“A real key with the flatbed was being able to compete at the lower end of the screen printing market,” he says. While competitive in very short runs—up to about 50 units—with its print-to-mount solution, the new device can satisfy orders of 200 to 300 and still make money.
The UV inkjet’s versatility is also a benefit. Two weeks after installation the company produced coasters for a promotion, printing multiple-up on two large 24-pt. sheets and digitally die cutting the coasters. They’ve also printed on aluminum, acrylic and ceramic tile.
“We just don’t say no,” explains Currie, who positions the company as a solution provider, not a printer. “Whatever the request, we’re always saying, ‘Yes, let me find out for you,’” he says. “Once you start selling print, you’re selling a commodity. Having the mentality to do these (out of the ordinary) things, that’s part of being a solution provider, and it’s high margin work,” he smiles.
Another ace up the company’s sleeve is its environmental commitment. “We are one of the few all-digital shops to be FSC [Forest Stewardship Council] certified,” beams Currie. “We deal with a lot of larger corporations, including government and financial services, and they care. I saw that necessity early on.”
Prime has been experiencing growth of 4 to 5% a year, notes Currie, and those are numbers he likes.
