Snowman Group Finds a Flurry of Opportunity with Kyocera Inkjet

Life in Maine is a little different than in other parts of the country. Because much of it is so remote, residents have become adept at handling things themselves.

“When you're in Maine you have to do a lot of different things,” affirms Rich Armstrong, president of The Snowman Group, a commercial printer based in Herman, Maine. “You find that people are very handy.”

This sense of self-reliance makes it particularly painful for print providers to wait for service on machines that break down. They need their equipment to keep working. They need reliability.

Armstrong’s company found that reliability in its Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c inkjet press, which it installed in 2022 and has been using to print statements, personalized letters, annual reports, booklets, directories, and more.

“It doesn't break down,” Armstrong says – despite printing more than half a million impressions on it per month. “The Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c is probably the least maintenance-intensive machine that we have. It's enjoyable to never, ever have someone come in your office and say ‘it's down again.’”

That reliability has boosted the press to the top of his operators’ list of favorite machines, he says.

“My people love this machine,” Armstrong reports. “They love the Kyocera. It's easy to operate. It's quiet. It's quieter than a traditional copier and it … quickly has become one of their favorite machines.”

It’s one of his favorites too, he says, because of its ability to churn out quality products at a fast clip, right on schedule.

“It is a beast, and it prints, and it prints … at the speed that they said it would,” Armstrong says. “It's a real game changer in the statement-printing business. It's one of those machines that … does what it says it can do, which is rare.”

Family-Run Business

Located seven miles west of Bangor, Maine, in a town of about 6,500 people, The Snowman Group comprises four companies: Snowman Printing (the commercial printing division); REMM Financial (statement printing); Presort Express (mailing); and Eagle Direct (e-commerce). Though the name Snowman may seem a fun reference to the region’s winter activities, it’s actually the last name of its founder, Harlan P. Snowman, who brought the company to life in 1932. Armstrong’s father retained the name when he bought it, and Armstrong stepped into the president’s role in 2010.

The company’s Down East emphasis on self-reliance has pushed it to greatly expand its services over the years.

“We can do everything from a lawn sign … to a thousand political signs for a political party, to a massive brochure that's going to be printed and mailed into very specific mailing lists, then all the way over to the nameplate that you might wear on your shirt,” Armstrong says. “We can engrave name plates. We can print on a UV-LED printer. We can do a rubber stamp. We have a lot of different avenues of cash flow, and we're continuing to always look at different opportunities.

“And then there's a statement printing arm,” he continues. “So, anything that ends up in your mailbox could come from us – it could be a postcard mailer from a business, it could be a bank statement from a bank, it could be a marketing piece from a variety of different entities as well as a nonprofit appeal that's asking you to help them out. So, our customers cover a large gamut.”

And those customers couldn’t be happier with the service they’re getting.

“Typically, I like to say that we don't ever lose customers,” Armstrong notes. “We gain them.”

Adding the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c has helped tremendously with customer satisfaction. The jobs it prints have tight deadlines; delays can’t be tolerated.

“We do statement printings for banks and businesses and towns. And you know that is something that is time sensitive, and it's a world of perfection – you can't make a mistake,” Armstrong says. Those statement jobs have average run lengths of about 75,000. Because he can rely on the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c he can rest a little easier knowing deadlines will be met.

He also loves knowing that, from a bottom-line perspective, the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c is saving his company money.

“The cost of operation is just so much lower than a traditional copier,” he says.

It’s also brought in business opportunities.

“It allows you to get more business because you can be more competitive on jobs that, if you were to quote it out on a traditional toner box, you’re not going to get the work,” Armstrong says.

One reason Snowman Group added the inkjet press was to move work from other equipment onto the TASKalfa Pro 15000c, and that has been going well.

“We've migrated some of our work from other pieces of equipment to the Kyocera because it's … reliable. It prints well. It stacks well. My operator's like it. And I really like what I've learned about Kyocera,” Armstrong says. “Many of the competing inkjets out there have Kyocera heads. So why would I want to have a different machine that's got a Kyocera head when I could have a Kyocera with a Kyocera head? And soon they're going to be coming out with a version of the machine that … prints on coated paper, which I think is going to be a game changer.”

Armstrong has been impressed with the people he’s worked with from Kyocera. Despite his company’s more remote location, he feels like he’s been a priority customer.

“The experience has been great,” he praises. “They were very responsive when we needed something or a question answered or a reference, or we wanted to go out and see a machine – they were right on top of it, and I think that if your experience is going to be like mine, it's going to be very, very clean and simple.”

And where, with other purchases, the concern has always been “buyer beware,” with the Kyocera TASKalfa Pro 15000c, the experience has been the opposite.

“It's rare that a machine does what they say it can do, and this can do exactly what they said,” Armstrong says. “If you don't get one of these, you're crazy because it is an awesome box.”