Mimeo.com: Driven to Succeed Online

Sales of Mimeo.com's large-format printing services are primarily to its existing customer base, but photo publishing has taken the company into the consumer sector through partnerships with services such as Snapfish and Kodak Gallery.

"That is a very distinct customer set," Corr explains. "We're working with the third parties who are the customer-facing piece and for whom we are the print production and distribution piece."

Photo publishing jobs are even shorter runs, averaging 1.7 copies, and have different binding demands than the document side of the business, he notes. It's a fast growing business because those companies are always looking for a new product or enhancement to differentiate what they offer, Corr adds.

Slutksy points out that this market was a natural fit because business activity, except for retail corporations, slows down during the holiday season, which is right when demand skyrockets for holiday cards, photo gift books and calendars. Mimeo.com is able to leverage the printing and logistics infrastructure it continues to develop for business clients to support the photo publishing market with the capacity required to meet seasonal demand, he says.

When a company has opened two plants in the past 18 months and has up to two more possibly in the works, one doesn't expect there to be much more in the way of investments on the horizon. However, Corr reports the firm is very interested in ink-jet web printing technology because the productivity and capital cost of the presses make them well suited to a centralized production model.

"If ink-jet web presses can provide us good enough quality at a lower cost, we like that," he says.

Slutsky concurs, adding that, "Ink-jet web printing is a different marketplace than other digital technologies, and it's going to be very good for us because we have enormous volume that comes through three funnels right now. We're really excited about the technology because it could be very disruptive in terms of our pricing." PI