Cox Target Media’s New Valpak Plant to Feature Muller Martini Press Delivery Automation
December 2006
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HAUPPAUGE, NY—12/06/06—Construction is nearing completion one of the most advanced print/mail material processing facility the marketplace has ever seen. Approximately one year ago and following several years of planning, Cox Target Media, producers of the well-known blue Valpak direct marketing coupon envelopes, began building a new $200-million facility in St. Petersburg, FL. In May, 2007, the plant is scheduled to commence operations, representing a quantum leap for the industry in terms of automated production from prepress through finishing and distribution. Press delivery technology from Muller Martini will be a focal point of the new plant.
“The sheer level of automation and system integration throughout the new Valpak plant will be second to none anywhere in our industry,” said Roger P. Bilodeau, Sr. V.P. corporate sales & strategic markets for Muller Martini. “This is it, what our industry has talked about for years, now being brought to realization. . .the first of its kind fully-automated, JDF-compatible and JMF-enabled print manufacturing system.”
Cox Target Media currently prints, stores, inserts, distributes and tracks more than 500 million direct mail envelopes each year. Those envelopes contain approximately 20 billion coupon offers. Once the new 470,000 sq. ft. plant is up and running, Cox will be able to increase production capacity to about 54 billion coupons annually while reducing cycle times and labor costs dramatically. “Our current production process takes four days to create a customer’s product – start to finish. Our new manufacturing process will accomplish that in about four hours,” said Jim Sampey, executive vice president of operations for Cox Target Media. “In our new facility, from the time paper feeds into the printing press, until the postal carrier delivers the blue envelope to consumers, no human hand will touch a coupon.”
Helping to make such a high level of productivity achievable is the press delivery system and digital workflow communications solutions from Muller Martini. The new Valpak plant will employ two 8-unit Goss Sunday 4000 AT web offset presses with up to 12 different products coming into a fully-automated high-speed Muller Martini press delivery system consisting of a Floorveyor, in-line deserting units, Topveyor overhead conveyors, and 12 PrintRoll twin winding stations. The complete press delivery operation will be controlled by the proprietary Muller Martini MACOS (Master Control System). Utilizing JDF and JMF in the CIP4 protocol, the system will track all of the 12 products delivered for print finishing – and for the first time ever in the industry, this “smart” press delivery technology will communicate back to the press, in real time, JMF messaging, to commence auto transfer to begin printing the next set of 12 signatures.
“The sheer level of automation and system integration throughout the new Valpak plant will be second to none anywhere in our industry,” said Roger P. Bilodeau, Sr. V.P. corporate sales & strategic markets for Muller Martini. “This is it, what our industry has talked about for years, now being brought to realization. . .the first of its kind fully-automated, JDF-compatible and JMF-enabled print manufacturing system.”
Cox Target Media currently prints, stores, inserts, distributes and tracks more than 500 million direct mail envelopes each year. Those envelopes contain approximately 20 billion coupon offers. Once the new 470,000 sq. ft. plant is up and running, Cox will be able to increase production capacity to about 54 billion coupons annually while reducing cycle times and labor costs dramatically. “Our current production process takes four days to create a customer’s product – start to finish. Our new manufacturing process will accomplish that in about four hours,” said Jim Sampey, executive vice president of operations for Cox Target Media. “In our new facility, from the time paper feeds into the printing press, until the postal carrier delivers the blue envelope to consumers, no human hand will touch a coupon.”
Helping to make such a high level of productivity achievable is the press delivery system and digital workflow communications solutions from Muller Martini. The new Valpak plant will employ two 8-unit Goss Sunday 4000 AT web offset presses with up to 12 different products coming into a fully-automated high-speed Muller Martini press delivery system consisting of a Floorveyor, in-line deserting units, Topveyor overhead conveyors, and 12 PrintRoll twin winding stations. The complete press delivery operation will be controlled by the proprietary Muller Martini MACOS (Master Control System). Utilizing JDF and JMF in the CIP4 protocol, the system will track all of the 12 products delivered for print finishing – and for the first time ever in the industry, this “smart” press delivery technology will communicate back to the press, in real time, JMF messaging, to commence auto transfer to begin printing the next set of 12 signatures.
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