All of us at Shapco Printing want to wish everyone a healthy, happy and prosperous holiday season and New Year. We are grateful to our loyal customers for the faith they have placed in us. Making our clients lives better is our goal. And, we are thankful to our many great vendors too. Your hard work allows us to fulfill our promises to our customers. Further, I appreciate all the hard work the employees put in to keep our customers happy. They do a great job. The difference in Shapco’s employees, vendors, and equipment is what allows Shapco to outperform our competition.
- Joel Shapiro
Shapco Printing understands the importance of sustainability. It’s important to our customers and it’s important to us.
We strive hard to reduce our carbon footprint here at Shapco. We invested $70,000 to have our entire lighting system replaced with a more eco-friendly solution, and we purchase Renewable Energy Credits/Windpower to offset our energy use. We are constantly looking into ways to improve our sustainability. We recycle everything from paper, to ink, to our aluminum plates.
Our clients confidently buy printing at Shapco because they know that as a certified Minnesota Great/Green Printer we go beyond what is required by government regulatory agencies in environmental, health and safety compliance. Environmentally-friendly soy or agri-based inks are used rather than petroleum-based inks. When you use our UV inks, they are virtually free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs).
Shapco is also a certified Forest Stewardship Council printer. By insisting on FSC-certified printing, you save natural forests, protect habitats, and keep our waters clean. Increasing population and consumption requires businesses, colleges, communities, and consumers to become better stewards of the earth. Shapco Printing is proud to be part of this collaboration!
How many times have you gone to a store or restaurant and received poor service? I had a conversation recently with one of my clients who had difficulty reaching a contractor for a bid on a very large project. Calls to the contractor were unanswered except for a recorded message saying “I’ll be out of the office on a golf outing; please call back tomorrow.” Wow. I guess the contractor’s golf outing is more important than your business! And why didn’t they leave a back-up contact while they were out?
I can think of one corporation in this country that prides itself on great service: Disney World. From the moment you walk into this amusement park it is clean, and the staff go out of their way to make you happy. Shapco knows the importance of good customer service and we make sure our clients always receive our best. You’ll never hear that your sales representative is out golfing and unavailable for your call. All of our sales representatives have smart phones so they are available to you 24/7. Not only that, we have top-notch customer service representatives inside the shop at all times. Joel Shapiro, the owner of the company, is also available to meet or talk with any client.
Besides great customer service, here are 10 solid reasons to buy from Shapco Printing:
- Digital, Conventional or UV Printing.
- Complete data/mailing services.
- Professional proofreading on staff.
- Solutions-oriented service.
- Central US location for efficient delivery to all areas of the country.
- Tremendous capacity for faster turn times! We also have the most UV presses of any commercial printer in Minnesota.
- Environmentally-sensitive Green printer.
- Conveniently located off Light-Rail and Northstar commuter rail systems in downtown Minneapolis.
- Nationally recognized for award-winning projects.
- Available 24/7.
Fireworks and mosquitoes. Fishing and tornados. Long days and tropical humidity. Summer in Minnesota, right? We are all used to taking the good with the bad, suffering through our long cold winters makes you appreciate a warm summer day even more. But when it comes to your printing you should not have to settle for less than the best. Do you love your printer’s prepress department but the press operators can’t hold the color? Maybe the printing is excellent but they always mess up the shipping? Not at Shapco. Here you get the best of everything. The most advanced prepress operators with the best training. Press operators with years upon years of experience running the most advanced printing presses made today. And a turnkey shipping and warehousing operation that is reliable and thorough. Our customers come to us for many reasons but the most common reason is something their previous printer didn’t have: solid quality and service from the beginning of their project to the end. There are no holes here at Shapco for your project to fall through. And on some summer nights here in Downtown Minneapolis, you can even see fireworks over the horizon. Surely another successful project going out the shipping doors…
2543 years. 105 sales and production staff. 1 company. That’s an average of 24 years of experience per employee here at Shapco. OK, so printing and cutting an 8.5 x 11 flyer wouldn’t really take that much experience. We do that with our eyes closed. Just kidding, Joel! (He’s the boss.) Seriously, most of the work we do requires experience. We’ve been “there” and most likely “done that” on whatever you throw at us. And most of the time, your work is literally thrown at us because you need it quickly.
Experience tells us to do your project a certain way. Experience allows us to remain calm under pressure. Experience gives us déjà vu. “Hey, I’ve seen this type of project before. We’d better suggest UV inks for this, or a box score for that.” Put it this way, if the project is in our hands, you’ll sleep very well at night.
It’s funny, well, not to us, but most of our equipment here is younger than we are. In each department, we have every bell and whistle you can think of. With our experience and fancy tools, we can move your project through here swiftly, with true craftsmanship, and of course – with a smile. Come on over and we’ll show you around. Yes, although we’ve been around a while, we can still walk just fine.
Yes, that’s right!
And I’m not kidding, because what I’ve found over the years is that being a pain in the neck has developed client loyalty like you wouldn’t believe. Double checking your files, questioning grammar, questioning spelling, wondering if the size of a brochure is really the most economical size on a tight budget. Wondering if you really meant delivering Thursday, June 23rd, and not Thursday, June 24th.
I am certain the extra attention we give to your projects actually makes them go quicker and cost less in the long run. It also saves our clients time and frustration in the end, along with avoiding some embarrassing spelling errors! I take my hat off to our proofreader who is at the top of our list of saving many a butt. And, who said nothing was free in this world?
What do you think of when you hear about Shapco Printing? We hope you think about our highly-skilled, creative people, cutting-edge equipment, ideal location, award-winning quality and a deep commitment by all of us to create a printed product that is second-to-none in the marketplace. Simply, we hope you love coming to Shapco because you feel it is a great experience working with us.
But what about other types of work we do beyond traditional print? Have you ever heard of the Shapco Digital StoreFront? It’s our online tool we have developed which enables clients, large and small, to order their materials for on-demand work, generic updatable materials and non-printed items. Working with our team, we create a unique website using your templates and customize a site that affords great flexibility in placing orders and managing inventory. The StoreFront makes it easy to print only what is needed at the time, so your materials stay current and you know exactly how much inventory you need on hand in real-time. There are different levels of control, so as the “administrator” you can keep a pulse on who is ordering what materials from your team. Our custom reporting makes the management of your inventoried items both easy to maintain and reliable. Whether the print requirements for your company are short-run digital, fit our numerous 40” presses or you are looking for a way to manage your inventory for non-print items, the Digital StoreFront is flexible to accommodate all of your needs.
All of us at Shapco love serving you and building strong, long-lasting relationships. We are here day and night, 24/7 to help you meet your objectives. It is our job to make the process of putting ink on paper a memorable and pain-free experience. Whether you come to us for traditional sheet-fed printing or are thinking about learning more about our Digital StoreFront, we are here to help guide you toward your goals.
Let’s talk about some of the services that Shapco Printing provides that set us apart from the rest of the printing industry.
Did you know that Shapco has a proofreader who has 30 years of experience in the industry? He is on-site to proofread every job that goes through our plant and his services are “FREE OF CHARGE.” This unique service allows you to have a fresh set of eyes take one last look at your project. Customers appreciate the cost savings and the mistakes caught before going to press.
Shapco also offers an off-line UV coater for digital work. You no longer have to sacrifice the quality or appearance of your digital work. As with conventional UV press coatings, your digitally-produced piece can attain a high shine and extra protection. The price is no more expensive than adding aqueous coating to a conventionally printed piece.
These are just two of the services that we are proud to offer our customers. These services set us apart from our competition and give you two more reasons to work with Shapco Printing.
Our Minnesota Twins are opening the season April 8, 2011 vs. Oakland Athletics.
As you know, we are located kitty-corner to Target Field. For our valued customers we have limited parking available on a first-come first-serve basis.
Please let your Shapco Representative know when you are going to a game and inquire if parking is available. Go Twins!
How can a printer become a Grammy Winner??? Print an award winning book for “The White Stripes” published by Chronicle Books out of San Francisco, photographer Autumn de Wilde. The White Stripes book was printed with double black duotones with bump plate special mix White Stripes “Red” ink and 4 color process with same White Stripes Red bump plate throughout. Winner of “Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package” at the 2011 Grammy Awards.
Shapco Printing is the most awarded printer in the upper Midwest. Our awards spread from east to west coast and now being associated by printing a book that has won a Grammy Award, we are all just thrilled and proud of the work we produce here at Shapco Printing. We are told we are the craftsmen of the printing industry. We are very proud of our work, talent and dedication and plan to continue producing award winning work.
Keep an eye on Shapco, we have only scratched the surface, and we plan on continuing our climb to the top, www.shapco.com/theartofprinting.
Read more about the project here from Chronicle Books.
