Chloe CameronWith PRINTING United being one of the most well-known events in the printing industry that takes place each year, SinaLite President Mike Meshkati was able to attend the trade show, but not without being featured on an exclusive podcast from PrintMediaCentr!
Interviewed by Deborah Corn, the founder of International Print Day, the podcast detailed Meshkati’s journey in SinaLite and the print industry as a whole.
Believe it or not, Meshkati’s whole career has always been in the print industry, where he’s been the president of SinaLite for the past 18 years. The beginning of Meshkati’s career in the print industry was actually more simple than you’d think; to put it simply, it all started when Meshkati wanted a car during his youth “Basically, I took on a job for my dad for the summertime. I enjoyed it. I started off as a packer beside a cutter,” explains Meshkati. “Basically from then on, I became an estimator and I stuck in the printing industry and here we are, 19 years later, and I’m enjoying this industry.”
SinaLite is a family-owned business started by Meshkati’s parents, which currently has about 200 employees. From Agfa presses to label presses, the company has it all. Before the company’s growth, SinaLite was initially a commercial printer before turning to wholesale trade.
In fact, Mike’s father made the decision to change SinaLite from a commercial printer to a wholesale printer. “When he started in the printing industry, the industry was very nice, it was very lucrative and he decided to become a trade printer because it’s easier. He doesn’t have to deal with end users or anything like that,” explains Meshkati.
“It used to be a very easy conversation but I think with all the changes occurring in our industry it’s becoming a little more challenging, but this is why we’re here. Our job is to educate people,” says Meshkati.
Poiché può ingenerare un evidente deterioramento della qualità della vita e promuove l’espansione dei vasi sanguigni di riempimento cavernoso formazioni di organi genitali. Così migliora la salute sessuale o clienti per chi crea la difficoltà a deglutire le compresse hanno possibilità di Godere Viagra con principio attivo Lovegra.
One of the responsibilities of SinaLite includes troubleshooting submitted files to ensure that they’re acceptable for the printing process. While SinaLite doesn’t fix the file for clients, the printer provides whatever resources they can to help clients.
“We give templates to individuals, we tell them how to create it, we write content on our blog to say ‘this is the best practices’ and from thereon they create their own files. We hope they create good files,” says Meshkati.
With the company printing a variety of products, SinaLite has noticed that some of their more popular products that are commonly ordered by clients include Coroplast signs, vinyl banners, BOPP labels, business cards, postcards, flyers, and brochures. Many of these products are great essentials to have for companies trying to represent their brand and expand business.
Meshkati also disclosed on how printers still go through ecommerce systems, including SinaLite. “We have two divisions. We try to tell people to mainly go on the ecommerce because we’ve made it so much easier for them to find their products and order it but if there’s this order you cannot find on the ecommerce, you just basically do a quote request. We have estimators that process your estimate and we fulfill your order.”
Meshkati also credited automation as being one of the reasons as to why the company has become competitive as a trade printer, but not without other factors. From having the right equipment to hiring great people, it all comes together in developing a well-established trade printer. When Corn asked whether he noticed an upward trend in clients asking for specialty finishing, Meshkati weighed in on investing in product finishes.
“I think all printers should be looking at that. We personally have an MGI, so we’re doing spot UV, we’re doing spot foil, and that’s the higher margin products that we keep educating our clients to upsell to their clients.So if your client comes in and wants some postcards, sell them a postcard with a foil on it. You could charge four times more and they love it. And with today’s technology you could do that on demand, so you don’t have to run 20,000 foil postcards because you no longer have to make a screen for it. You could technically do 100 and still make a lot of money off of it.”
Corn also brought up the advancements of new presses from manufacturers, where Meshkati revealed his challenges with this topic in the industry.
“My beef with the industry is that the presses have become so automated. Finishing equipment hasn’t…I wish someone would come in and do all that integration because right now, no finishing equipment talks directly to a printing equipment. So I think that’s where our industry is lagging right now. I think if finishing equipment becomes more automated, we’ll be in a better position.”
He also shared the following tips for print business success:
- Everyone should get on a CRM (Customer Relations Management)
- Start a business development program
- Know your vertical. Understand who are your clients
On a final note, Meshkati stated that print is very much alive despite contrary belief. “Our industry’s changing. It’s evolving. It’s not going away. I think it’s going to be here for a long, long time.”
Thank you for your help. this information fixed my problem.
Glad to hear that, Daniel!