At the crossroads of New Jersey, just off the bustling Turnpike and Parkway, lies the town of Edison. The town was named after one of the most iconic figures in American history – the prolific inventor, Thomas Edison. Over a century ago that Thomas Edison moved his research laboratory to the Menlo Park area. It was there that Edison would invent solutions that continue to impact our lives today from the phonograph to the electric light bulb.
Against this backdrop in history, the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of Thomas Edison can be found today in the nearby Consortium Companies. The multi-generational, family owned print service provider offers a diverse range of products and services for clients in New Jersey, nearby New York City, and across the country. Whether customers need personalized mailers, oversized signage, fulfillment services, or marketing/novelty items, the group of Consortium Companies can deliver.
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Prodigital Printing, the commercial printing side of the business, is focused on providing print-related services to other print shops. Prodigital has a modern mix of printing equipment to enable fast turnaround times. Bolstering their Hamada offset presses, the company also has an HP Scitex flatbed inkjet printer and recently expanded their digital cut-sheet capabilities. The company aims to be a comprehensive, one-stop-shop provider for document and marketing materials differentiated by their responsiveness to their clients.
In fact, the company recently upgraded its digital printing operations with a fleet of Xerox equipment. “The uptime of the iGen5 has been a significant improvement over our previous equipment and allows us to produce work more efficiently and meet our clients stringent turnaround times”, said Michael Solomon, Principal of Business Development. Another, somewhat unexpected, benefit has been around the extended sheet capability where oversized applications or smaller work can be combined on the 26” long sheet.
Eight years ago, the family channeled their entrepreneurial energy and started The Fanatic Group to provide an ever-growing range of officially licensed collegiate products to students, alumni, and fans.
The Solomon’s are constantly searching for new and innovative products to imprint with your favorite college mascot. The company’s current catalog offers paper-based products like greeting cards and notepads to dimensional products like drinkware and key chains. Although the Fanatic Group is focused on the collegiate niche, the same inkjet printing method can also be used for companies looking to order branded promotional items. With the launch of Printmarx, three years ago, the company is now offering a line of full color promotional products that are printed digitally, which enables all of their products to be personalized for that “wow factor.” Printmarx is an active member of PPAI and lists all of their products on SAGE.
Today’s progressive print shops are always looking to add products and services for their customers. Increasingly, there is also a need to experiment, test, measure, and iterate in every aspect of the business. To that end, The Fanatic Group saw Amazon’s marketplace as a natural extension to offer branded products directly to consumers and started selling them through that channel last year. This also serves as a reminder that there are many ways to sell products online, including platforms that are already established.
No one knows exactly what the future holds. But like Edison, companies that look forward and take innovative, calculated risks have more potential to succeed than simply following the status quo.
