MTD Products
A Partnership for Long-Term Success – Staying One Step
Ahead of Customers’ Needs
Background
A successful business partnership doesn’t happen overnight. A foundation of trust and shared values have to be established between the brand owner and packaging provider – and that takes time. And when that partnership has evolved over 25 years, the opportunities to innovate and collaborate on cutting-edge best practices and technologies grow as well. Partnering also gives each party access to the others’ skill sets and resources, which can greatly expand their individual capabilities, brand image and bottom line results.
Rohrer is proud to have fostered that kind of long-term-relationship with many of its customers. One in particular is MTD Products Inc., a global leader of high-quality outdoor power equipment and aftermarket accessories. And Rohrer has been their go-to packaging partner as they grew their market reach from local to worldwide retail shelves.
Solution
Process +™ – Spot-on Color for Less
Garrett Fasciana, Purchasing Agent, MTD Products, Inc., “Any time a supplier stays one-step ahead of our needs by investing in new technologies, we really appreciate that.”
What Garrett was referring to was Process +™, one of Rohrer’s most cutting-edge software solutions that offers more spot-on color options – for less.
Many of the blister cards that Rohrer runs for MTD use multiple colors for their aftermarket products. They can be found in major home and garden retail outlets branded with the store’s unique brand color and logo, such as Home Depot.
In the past, an additional spot color would accrue a ‘5th color charge’ fee. But with the power of the newly developed Process +™, Rohrer saw how MTD could realize immediate cost savings by eliminating spot colors.
Traditional spot colors are mixed conventionally in the ink room and printed as custom inks using dedicated ink decks of the press. Process +™ colors are mixed digitally in prepress software and printed by combining dots of standard inks (CMYK+OGV) on 7 ink decks of the press.
Process +™ can reproduce over 80% of the Pantone Plus Series Color Guide vs. 65% with standard CMYK. Its foundation is based on a Good, Better and Best PMS (Pantone Matching System) match:
- Good = PMS colors converted using CYMK
- Better = PMS colors converted using Process +™
- Best = PMS colors NOT converted/actual spot color
The ‘Better’ result is a greatly expanded color gamut that more accurately reproduces Pantone colors versus CMYK on repeated runs.
After learning the cost-savings benefits Process +™ could offer MTD without sacrificing quality, they were excited to try a test run.
They approved color samples within a week for that 5th color, and production was given the green light.
Results-to-Date
Garrett Fasciana, “Process +™ helped MTD realize annual cost savings between $40K-$50K by eliminating an additional color charge.” He also cited ease of conversion and a fast turnaround as added benefits MTD enjoyed by leveraging the new technology. But perhaps the best news of all was no news from the big box retailers. The color match was spot-on consistent with their brand, meaning that no difference was detected thanks to Process +™.
