The company, which claims to be NZ's largest privately owned mailing house, installed two of the presses in its Auckland site and two in Wellington at the end of last month, greatly increasing colour capacity to grow its market position in direct mail
Western general manager Bernice Duncan (pictured, centre) told ProPrint that the company had conducted exhaustive research when deciding which vendor to go with.
"We did a fair bit of groundwork; we looked at other suppliers and weighed up the pros and cons of about four different options," she said.
"It was the quality of the finish on the [1000] and the energy conservation that won us over. Some of the machines we looked at weren't very environmentally friendly, and some of the clients we deal with demand environmentally friendly work."
Western founder and managing director Gary Lewis (left) travelled to the US and Japan with his son, Western sales manager Wade Lewis (right), to get a look at the 1000 in action prior to its official launch in April.
Gary Lewis said: "The decision on which digital press supplier to go with was not an easy one. Western Mailing did a lot of fact-finding to get to this point.
"Firstly, we are already a top five Xerox customer in New Zealand with a very positive relationship with the Xerox team. Secondly, the 1000 press has CMYK plus a fifth clear ink coat station, which really enhances the finished printed product."
Duncan said the machines would help the printer enhance its capabilities in direct marketing by allowing it to bid for DM jobs that previously it could not handle.
Wade Lewis said the company was looking to become a "market leader" in the fields of "personalised multi-channel marketing, hybrid mailing, dynamic document construction, and customer data visualisation".
The company is now looking at what to do with some of its existing Xerox colour and B&W. It is continuing to run a Xerox Nuvera 288 on its floor.
Western Mailing was founded in 1984 and employs more than 100 people across its two sites.
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