J.S. McCarthy — Driving Out Costs, Waste

The pride of Augusta, ME, JSM took on its current form at the beginning of the millennium. Letter Systems—fresh off its acquisition of Knowlton & McLeary—bought JSM, which had merged with Gannet Graphics previously. Prepress house Graphic Color joined the fold shortly after. JSM’s name was kept since it boasted the strongest brand identity.

JSM, which posted $22 million in sales for the latest fiscal year, has enjoyed a carnival-like atmosphere of activity since the series of mergers and acquisitions. In the past few years alone, the company has installed two eight-color, 40˝ Komori Lithrone S40 sheetfed presses, including one with perfecting capabilities. Rick Tardiff auditioned all of the usual suspects in the 40˝ press market, and opted for Komori because of its high automation.

“In doing our analysis, we determined that half of our day consisted of makereadies, the other half production,” Rick Tardiff notes. “With the Komori, we’ve actually reduced our makeready time by 50 percent, and the amount of paper we use for a makeready by 50 percent, as well. That equates to 750,000 sheets of paper a year on one press that is running virtually 24/7.

Doing More with Less

“We were able to replace six presses with three newer models. A majority of work we have now is being cranked out by the two new Komori presses, with the third one pitching in as needed,” he continues. “So, we’ve basically cut our pressroom in half. And we’re outperforming what we had when running six presses.”

Other outlays in the company’s seven-year, $14 million capex initiative have brought aboard an MBO Perfection folder with Navigator control, a Heidelberg ST450 stitcher, a Kodak Magnus platesetter, along with assorted foil stamping and diecutting gear. Advanced Equipment Sales pieced together a scrap retrieval and baling system for JSM, and the company recently completed a 36,000-square-foot addition to its facility. In the last year, J.S. McCarthy has also been making PANTONE and spot colors in-house, and has saved on ink costs, by using an Mx6 ink formulation dispenser from GFI Innovations.

JSM is a regional printer by definition, but accomplishes some very impressive global reaches (including California and. . .Qatar!) due to its technological prowess. Technical assistance is one of JSM’s specialties, with in-house staff that travels to support the software and hardware customers use on the prepress side of the workflow (such as Adobe In- Design, Photoshop and PDF). More than 500 clients also use JSM’s online remote proofing product.