Worldwide Printing Botany

Perry Garofani is enjoying the benefits of his Ricoh digital press that is delivering lucrative business opportunities

Gerry Garofani from Worldwide Printing in Botany is not your typical printing franchise owner. As an industry stalwart who started his career working the giant printing presses at Sydney's Daily Sun newspaper, Garofani has a thorough understanding of how printing machines work.

Garofani started the Worldwide Printing Botany franchise in 2010. By capitalising on the opportunities of digital printing, Garofani has built his business from the ground up. He started with just a single client and today runs a compact yet thriving operation with more than 1,500 customers. More than eighty per cent of business is now digital.

Upgrading to the Ricoh Pro C7100X

When Garofani was looking to upgrade, he wanted to overcome some of the limitations of his old digital press, which was not a Ricoh.

"I was looking for a machine that could help to address some of the issues I was facing, such as registration, and the ability to handle oversized sheets and heavier stocks. I had heard Ricoh was doing good things, and was attracted to its Pro C7100X for its technology and price. The machine's offset-like features, such as including a fifth white or clear colour, and its superior registration, wide format and heavier stock capabilities were a perfect fit for my business," he says.

The Pro C7100X is Ricoh's newest digital colour cut sheet press. It features a fifth white or clear ink station that allows print houses to deliver a wide range of creative applications and functional capabilities that have in the past been constrained to offset printers. This includes the ability to print oversized signage, plastic window clings, and heavily textured natural and synthetic stocks. These often bespoke, short-run and on-demand jobs can open up new and lucrative business opportunities.

Garofani says, "Investing in the Ricoh Pro C7100X has been a sound business decision. We love the machine. Since the new press was delivered last year, we've seen a number of new opportunities open up."

Embracing creative opportunities

Worldwide Printing Botany's designer, Christine Moerke, has embraced the new creative opportunities. "We love how the machine makes us think about things differently, in many cases in reverse. We think about the print outcomes first and what can be achieved through the design. It is inspiring to be able to offer our customers something new and different. From a design and creative perspective, that is exciting, and it makes the sales process more enjoyable. We are enjoying experimenting with the possibilities that the whites provide. We are getting great results on buffalo board and having a lot of fun with the metallic and textured stocks."

The Ricoh Pro C7100X range

There are four models in the Ricoh Pro C7100X range - the Pro C7100X five station press, the Pro C7110X with higher speed, and the Pro C7100SX and Pro C7110SX with multi-function printer (MFP) capability. With plans to expand the fifth colour capabilities with the imminent release of neon yellow toner, Ricoh's offset-like image quality and features makes this small footprint digital press a force to be reckoned with.