Quebecor World is hoping to generate more postal savings for its catalog and periodical customers through new comailing technologies announced Dec. 11.
The printer will use variable trim and unique hybrid comail technologies to increase its comail offering. “Deploying variable trim creates more opportunities for our customers to participate in inline comail pools,” says Tony Ross, Quebecor World’s vice president of corporate communications.
With greater participation comes more volume and greater postal savings, he says. “Customers with non-standard comail trim sizes can participate without compromising specifications that are important to them. This technology ultimately expands the comail platform to build the most cost effective pools possible.”
Quebecor World’s hybrid comail solution will enable more magazine and catalog customers to benefit from postal savings because it combines two established technologies into one package. The company will be able to merge fully selective and personalized books from a saddle stitcher or perfect binder with multiple, previously perfect bound or stitched books. Hybrid comail will eliminate the current constraints around size in both dimensions, bind type and mail class by building new comail pools.
Earlier this year, Quebecor World Logistics became the first in the industry to offer mixed class comail pools to publishers and catalogers, which has since tripled in volume. Consequently, the division recently announced plans to open a new offline comail facility in New Jersey as a result of growing demand for mail optimization solutions.
Ross says initial production at the New Jersey comailing facility will start by the end of January. “There will be two comail machines operational by the end of the first quarter with a third machine available by the fall,” he says. “The New Jersey facility will house approximately 100 employees.”
How does Quebecor World Logistics mix class comail pools? “Mixed-class comail allows us to comail catalogs and periodicals, two different classes of mail,” Ross explains. The QW Mail List Technologies group has a unique program that allows for the most cost efficient presort, maximizing customer savings. Mixed-class comail allows the printer to build more comail pools faster without the need to aggregate individual mail classes (periodical and standard).
“We don’t have to wait several days to accumulate enough catalog volume,” he says. “We can utilize the periodical and catalog volume on hand to turn pools quicker. This is due to QW’s structure, which contains both co-mail services as well as mail list services in-house.”
So what prompted this technological move for Montreal-based Quebecor? “We are listening to the demand of our current customer base and responding by providing additional comail opportunities affording greater savings to more customers,” Ross says.
“Quebecor World’s comailing opportunities are unique in that we have faster turnaround times, more flexibility of product allowed and the ability to accept generally smaller minimum quantities,” he adds. “We will also accept poly-wrapped pieces and non-polywrapped pieces together in the same pool, allowing for additional chances to participate in a comail event.”