Repro Mercury: "Huge time savings with the Roland BN20D

Since 1989, Repro Mercurius from Ede has been an active player in the reproduction market. By constantly renewing itself, the company has grown into a leading, modern company with an established name and a very good reputation. Both private and business customers from all over the region and even nationwide know how to find the company for poster/print and print work and keep coming back! For everything related to reproducing, SIGN and graphic services, customers have come to the right place. Repro Mercurius is run by the second generation, the twins Rini and Erik van Ernst. Together with Martin Wuijster (product manager at Dimix) we visit the two gentlemen and ask them about their company and their newest DTF acquisition.

History and division of labor

The company has existed for 34 years and was founded by the father of Rini and Erik a few hundred meters from where the company is now located. They started as a small light printing company (printing architectural drawings with light sensitive material) by taking over a light printing company in Ede (Mercurius). Work was already going in and out the door with pallets at a time. Many assignments at that time were with contractors and municipal projects. The twins had both studied MTS Architecture and joined their father in the business. This was when AutoCad drawings became popular. The whole system to plot this (AutoCad system, computer, plotter, etc.) was purchased in the company and Rini became involved with it. "This way we could serve customers who wanted to have their drawings plotted but didn't want to buy the plotter, after all, they had it. After a year it was so busy that I couldn't handle it by myself. At that point Erik joined the company and we redistributed the work with each other. In 2000, we really took over the business from our father. Ten years later we moved to the building where we are today."

Continually expand and innovate in offerings

"In recent years we have become increasingly broad in our offerings. This is necessary because demand is changing rapidly. Building plans used to have to be sent to the municipality in six copies on paper, nowadays it goes digitally with a Pdf. We also notice that the volume that was still there before Corona has not returned either." Printing clothes, making construction fence banners, printing (and framing) posters, stickers, canvas, are just some of the services they offer. "The strength is that we can offer many different things and can make and process almost everything in-house. In addition, we are in a fantastic high visibility location here in Ede with our own parking in front of the door."

A few years ago there were still 9 of them, in heyday even 18 staff. Currently, they are probably four. "We have mainly invested in the machines, which have taken the work away from the 'hands'." They prefer not to grow in personnel anymore. However, they do notice strong price pressure in recent years. "You have to keep your prices low if you want to bring in work. We are strong in that too and succeed very well, otherwise you can't exist that long either."

Rini explains the practical way of working, "Erik does all the preparation. He processes everything that comes in in terms of files so that it is ready to be turned out. One of us then runs the file and I usually do the further processing." Erik adds: "I think our strength also lies in the fact that we still have a large "old-fashioned" counter here. Via the smallest jobs, larger orders often come out of that anyway by having a short conversation about what we can all offer more of."

DTF saves us a lot of time

"The Roland BN20D saves us an awful lot of time." Before purchasing this printer, textile printing had been done with flex for over 12 years. "Everything we don't have to peel now saves us time. Especially in the high print runs or logos with lots of details, we save a huge amount."

The machine actually came at exactly the right time. "We bought the first machine of this type from Dimix just before the summer, which allowed us to get started quickly and deliver our orders in a short time. We had a very nice start-up with the soccer clothing sets of the local Sportclub Wilhelmina (SCW'23) and other regular customers for new printing. "

Sports clubs

The sports clubs are close to the hearts of the gentlemen. For years they have been active in various board positions, giving soccer training and volunteering for the clubs. It is therefore logical that there is a lot for work here at the moment. "The sports clubs now know how to find us well. And through the club, other business relationships then arise."

Erik adds: "Software-wise it is also very nice to work with. Versaworks does everything automatically. We no longer have to place contours around the design ourselves, for example."

Collaboration with Dimix

"We keep a very close eye on the market. The developments in our graphics/sign market don't stand still. With every new development, we look carefully at whether or not it suits us, and then we decide very quickly whether to buy or not. So far we haven't made a purchase that we regret. We go a little against the grain compared to most companies in our market. We do choose to be able to produce as much as possible in-house which allows us to work and deliver quickly and accurately and not depend on other parties."

The relationship between Erik, Rini and Martin has also been there for 34 years (then through: Printservice, Renker, Sihl Direct and now Dimix). It started with Erik and Rini's father. Because they have known each other for so long they quickly seek each other out for advice and to respond to developments. Laughing, they say, "We sometimes bought the big things on beer mats! That was still possible back then." View the assortment at www.repromercurius.nl