In 2012, book distributor Ware-Pak partnered with Bookmobile to supply a high-quality POD-type printing service for their book publishers. Ware-Pak’s client Barcelona Publishers is one of our most successful cases to date! Founded in 1904, Barcelona publishes books about music therapy. Barcelona primarily sells to the textbooks market, and our Bin-on-Demand plan with Ware-Pak was just what they needed to easily and cost-effectively manage their inventory. The Bin-on-Demand plan is exclusive to Ware-Pak. Ware-Pak stores smaller quantities of books in bins to keep storage costs down for their book publishers (of course storage costs are less for a bin of books versus a pallet of books). A short-run printing option like Bin-on-Demand is imperative to make the bins easy to manage. Ware-Pak lets the publisher know how many copies of a book fit in a bin, so Barcelona pays minimal storage costs to Ware-Pak, but still always has books in stock.
According to Kenneth Bruscia PhD, Director at Barcelona Publishers, Bin-on-Demand is a perfect fit:
Since adding many of our books to Bin-on-Demand with Bookmobile, our entire reprinting process has been simplified considerably. It is such a relief to know that the problem of going out of stock is completely eliminated with none of the effort previously required. This set-up also allows us to keep many of the important but slow-selling books in print without any unnecessary expenditures. Bookmobile’s printing is very high quality and quite cost competitive, and the staff are always friendly, competent, and helpful. We are a very happy customer!
With over 51 titles in Bookmobile’s archives, Bin-on-Demand has reduced Barcelona’s workload—those are 51 titles they don’t need to manage. And because we’re printing in small batches and not one book at a time, Bookmobile ensures high-quality standards—each print run at Bookmobile has about 60 criteria that are checked off for quality control. For example, for a reprint, we check the cover’s color and check the interior’s margins against an archived copy of the previous printing, to be sure consistency is maintained. Plus in the textbooks market, Barcelona is always going to sell more than one copy of a book, so printing in small batches makes more sense economically than true one-at-a-time POD, with the important benefit of selling a high-quality product to their readers.
Keith Shay, President & CEO, Ware-Pak LLC:
Our Bin-on-Demand program with Bookmobile works like Print-on-Demand, with some notable advantages. Even with all the improvements made by the POD folks, Bookmobile’s digital book printing services are simply superior. Plus clients have options: you can choose from different page stocks, trim sizes, and have 4-color printing at a much higher resolution. Once Bin-on-Demand is set up, everything is done through the Ware-Pak management system—the quantities are checked daily, and when it is time, an automatic email is generated to Bookmobile. Then books are printed, and the bin is restocked. Bottom line is higher quality, lower cost of production, and an automatic process. What’s not to love?
Contact me, Nicole Baxter, for more information about Bookmobile’s innovative printing services! 1-800-752-3303, ext 126.
Contact Matt Kurtis for more information about Ware-Pak’s fulfillment services and Bin-on-Demand! 708-587-4130.