Challenge Printing Undergoes Identity Change

The press, which can handle substrates ranging from 48-pt. board and 80-lb. offset, was the focal point in a 51-piece, $14 million capital improvement initiative for Imagine!, which has shelled out more than $40 million for equipment over the past five years.

Imagine! was able to easily accommodate the new hardware after moving into its new location during the first few weeks of January. Its overall space burgeoned from the 250,000 square feet of space it occupied spread over three facilities in Eden Prairie, MN, to 425,000 square feet in its new Shakopee home. The building, formerly home to telecommunications provider ADC, boasts 40-foot-high ceilings and has seen more than $50 million worth of improvements.

Equally impressive was Imagine!'s ability to acquire the building for 17 cents on the dollar. Imagine that.

"The building had been for sale for 3.5 years," Bixler says. "We had outgrown our old facility and we were landlocked—couldn't build on it. We're now located on 18 acres, and our new building is expandable up to 650,000 square feet."

Expansion in the future is more than likely. Challenge/Imagine! reaped a 26 percent revenue increase in 2004, and year-to-date sales have blossomed by 30 percent.

According to Bixler, an open house is tentatively scheduled for later this year.

Continuing with its theme of getting bigger following a move to new, larger facilities, Imagine! Print Solutions has added a six-color, 81˝ KBA Rapida 205 press with UV capabilities.