“People already own the real estate on their vehicle or their building — they are already paying for it. So use it. Use those surfaces for advertising.” It was a simple philosophy that, according to Cora Blue, offi ce/marketing manager for Raleigh, N.C.-based Capital Wraps, has led to strong growth and increasing opportunities. Vehicle wraps are a mainstay of the business, but as time has progressed, building wraps and a wide variety of additional outdoor signage applications have off ered new opportunities.

But with the expansion in outdoor graphics, Capital Wraps started receiving orders for jobs the company just couldn’t produce in-house. Not only did that mean losing margin by paying someone else to produce the work, but it also meant a loss of control over everything from the quality of the work to the timing.

The team at Capital Wraps started looking for a printer that would allow it to keep more work in-house. Among the requirements for any new purchase was the ability to print on a much wider range of materials, including things that would not run through Capital Wraps’ roll-to-roll inkjet printers. But the most important thing on Blue’s list was the ability to print large graphics — as in, building-sized graphics.

“Any new machine had to be able to take on big projects, and when I say big, I mean BIG,” says Blue. “For example, we received an inquiry about printing a banner for a 50-story building in Miami. The client wanted it to run from the top all the way to the bottom, and if you don’t have a large-enough printer, you have to outsource, and we didn’t want to do that.”

The Raleigh-based company is fi ttingly named for its location in North Carolina’s capital city. The name is just as appropriate for the nation’s capital, and, interestingly enough, Capital Wraps successfully

Capital Wraps wins outdoor graphics business it never thought it could reach with the EFI H1625 LED printer

EFITM H1625 LED PrinterCase Study

Challenge:

“ We wanted to be able to print

the big outdoor graphics projects

we were winning ourselves,

instead of outsourcing.”

CORA BLUE, OFFICE/MARKETING MANAGER,CAPITAL WRAPS

2

promotes itself in the Washington, D.C., market nearly 300 miles to the north, printing a significant number of jobs for installations in and around the District of Columbia. Many of Capital Wraps’ jobs in D.C., according to Blue, involve construction banners.

“The other big factor for us in choosing a printer was the ability to print fence mesh for construction projects,” Blue says. “We always had to outsource that, and those jobs require hundreds and hundreds of square feet of fence mesh.”

Expanded horizons

To bring those projects in-house and expand the types of jobs the company could take, Capital Wraps purchased a 65-inch EFI H1625 LED hybrid roll/flatbed printer to complement the latex and solvent inkjet printers it already had. The H1625, which has four colors plus two white-ink channels that come standard, was one of the newest machines in the EFI lineup at the time of purchase. According to Blue, it has lived up to expectations in terms of producing outstanding work.

“I can’t believe what this thing produces,” says Blue. “The capabilities of this flatbed to do the fence mesh and banners is outstanding. We could not do those things without that printer.”

Another huge bonus for Capital Wraps was the service that EFI provided along the way. “They have been really, really supportive and very helpful,” says Blue. “Any problems or questions, they are very responsive, and they are not afraid to send a technician for anything. They have just been awesome.”

The support goes beyond just answering questions; Blue believes Capital Wraps would not have been successful with the machine without the training EFI provided. “The H1625 prints incredible graphics that go beyond photo quality. Just gorgeous stuff,” Blue says, “But there is a skill level that goes into knowing how to operate it.”

With the training EFI provided, Capital Wraps could confidently use the most advanced capabilities of the printer. “Having a better instructor means producing a better product,” Blue says. “And the trainers we’ve had from EFI have all been really fantastic. They all really know their stuff.”

It all started 10 years ago, the way many successful businesses begin: in a two-car garage attached to someone’s home. Keoni Denison started with one big printer, and his friends — including his office and marketing manager, Cora Blue — used to come over to sip margaritas and watch him wrap cars. Since then, the company has expanded into a 10,000-square-foot warehouse and 15 employees serving the Raleigh, N.C. and Washington, D.C. areas. And while vehicle wraps are still a big staple of its business, Capital Wraps has expanded its expertise into a wide range of additional services including wall murals, window signage, building wraps, and more.

Capital Wraps

5812 Triangle Drive

Raleigh, NC 27617

+1-202-573-WRAP (9727)

www.capitalwraps.com

Solution:

“With the EFI printer, we can print on many more

materials than we can on other printers, and we

have a lot more control over the product.”

CORA BLUE, OFFICE/MARKETING MANAGER, CAPITAL WRAPS

3

A platform for growth

Blue is pleased that her company can better service its existing clientele by producing more client work in-house. One such client, the South Atlantic Fire Rescue Expo, has sent its work to Capital Wraps for the past several years, and it is a big job that includes wrapping an entire convention center. In the past, Capital Wraps outsourced the larger elements of that job because the company didn’t have equipment capable of printing on the right materials at the right size. This year, with the EFI H1625 LED printer in place, Capital Wraps did all of the Fire Rescue Expo work in-house, including the convention center wrap.

The printer has helped the company win new clients as well. Now, Capital Wraps is servicing more national clients in addition to its local customer base.

“In a nutshell, the growth we’ve seen with the printer really boils down to the fact that we don’t have to outsource as much work as we did before,” Blue explains. “We have much more control because jobs are in-house, which means cost savings, time savings, and greater control over the end result of the product.”

Turnaround times have dropped dramatically, which is especially advantageous for nonprofits the company serves – local clients that sometimes come in with last-minute requests to produce graphics for big events. “If we had to outsource those jobs, they wouldn’t come back until the event was over,” says Blue. “Now, we can download the high res file and say, ‘We can print this tomorrow.’”

“That not only helps those clients, but it helps us serve our community,” Blue adds. “It’s a nice thing to be able to say ‘yes’ when

Result:

“With the H1625 LED printer,

we went from wrapping

local plumbers’ trucks

to doing really big

nationwide accounts.”

CORA BLUE, OFFICE/MARKETING MANAGER, CAPITAL WRAPS

EFI fuels success.We develop breakthrough technologies for the manufacturing of signage, packaging, textiles, ceramic tiles, and personalized documents, with a wide range of printers, inks, digital front ends, and a comprehensive business and production workflow suite that transforms and streamlines the entire production process, increasing your competitiveness and boosting productivity. Visit www.efi.com or call 650-357-3500 for more information.

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someone calls and says they shouldn’t have waited but asks if we will help them now. We can tell them we believe in the cause too, and we can get that work done.”

In terms of new business, the 50-story banner job in Miami that Blue mentioned is one of the projects Capital Wraps was able to tackle because it had the H1625 LED printer. It also is a job the company never would have bid on, much less won, in the past. The wrap was for a skincare line and featured a 40-foot-tall woman who needed to look perfect. She did, thanks to the printer’s single-pass, multilayer printing capabilities with true eight-level, variable-drop grayscale printheads.

Another job Capital Wraps won with its EFI printer was for Nickelodeon, the children’s cable channel. It was a basketball-themed event being held at a pier in New York City, and Capital Wraps printed a full gym floor on vinyl that was installed on the surface of the pier.

“We transformed the whole thing into a basketball court,” Blue noted. “It went from one end to the other; it might not have been full court size, but it was pretty huge. And we were able to bid on it, print it, and ship it, and we did every bit of it in-house. Without the EFI printer, we would not have been able to do any of it.”

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