Primary Color Installs RMGT 940 Offset Press

Primary Color, a leading print provider in the horticultural market and for consumer product groups in the wine and spirits market, recently installed a five-color RMGT (Booth N801) 9 Series press with UV curing. Based in Dallas, TX, Primary Color, merged with the Garden Marketing Group in 2014. Garden Marketing Group is a producer of plant tags and horticultural manufacturing products. Since 2014, it has continued to expand the tag and label printing to include light packaging, and wide- and grand-format printing for point of purchase displays.

“The horticultural tag and label market exploded for us during the COVID pandemic,” states Josh Hoffmann, president, Primary Color. “All through 2020 and 2021 everyone was at home working on their yards. Our horticultural customers were shipping more plants into their distribution channels, increasing the demand for more tags. Another industry that we saw growing rapidly was packaging, and we continue to do a steady increase of folded cartons.”

“We print the plant tags on a polypropylene substrate,” continues Hoffmann. “Years before the supply chain issues began that has affected printers’ access to paper and other substrates, we began sourcing directly from Europe. Throughout 2020 and 2021 we had zero supply issues. By ordering consignments of material to meet our needs throughout the year, the recent disruption the marketplace is experiencing has not impacted our production.” 

The increase in demand for more printing capacity was met with the investment in a five-color RMGT 940 offset press, with UV curing and camera system. The press was installed in the summer of 2021. “Moving from a half-sized press to the RMGT 940 has doubled our capacity,” observes Hoffmann. “We are able to print on a larger sheet, which results in greater yields in our production. UV curing technology allows us to move a print job immediately into finishing since the ink is instantly cured.”

In addition to increasing the print capacity at Primary Color, their investment in offset printing has taken significant cost out of their business. “We have reduced our makeready by 66%,” states Hoffmann. “Before we upgraded to the RMGT 940, it required 400 to 500 sheets to get up to color and registration. Now we are doing that in about a 100 to 150 sheets. When you are purchasing sheets of material at $1 a sheet and you start reducing that cost by two-thirds, that’s a lot of dollars that go to the bottom line.”

In addition to the tag and label printing done by Primary Color, a sizeable part of their business is dedicated to point of purchase displays. Printers who have a hybrid model of print manufacturing, offset and digital grand-format, can look to produce the printed piece in the most cost-effective way. “What we are seeing that is a tipping point to move a job from grand-format to the offset press that is right around the 750 to 1,000-piece mark,” continues Hoffmann. “So, whether we are printing aisle violators or case cards, because we can now offset print on substrates up to 24-pt., we choose the printing process that turns the work fastest, provides the highest quality, and gives us the greatest yield.”