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S U P P L I E R P L A N T T O U RDebco Bag Award WCome and visit theDebco showroom.Imagine a bagline that consistedof 2bags. Imagineprinting eachorder by hand onone manual pressand then hangdryingeach piecein your livingroom. What happenswhen youget an order for 100 pieces? You could tryhanging bags in your bathroom, closet,garage, or maybe even your neighbour’splace. Every company has its grassrootsstories, and Debco’s go back 21 years.Currently, the company is celebrating its21st year in the promotional business andyou’ll be happy to hear, has invested indryers! With over 100 employees thesedays, the Debco team is strong and thriving.The company’s warehousing totalsover a staggering 125,000 square feet withthe aim of providing unparalleled stockquantities for its valued customers. In fact,Debco boasts of having the largest inventoryof promotional bags in all of Canada.Centrally located just minutes North ofToronto, the company is ideally located toquickly respond to the needs of our clientsfrom Victoria, BC to St. John’s, NL.In addition to being Canada’s largest bagdistributor, the Debco line is diverse andoffers so much more than just bags.Debco has pioneered such products asthe chair in a bag, a comprehensive picnicline, the golf bag umbrella, and the rockcooler to mention a few. Amid a 200+page catalogue, you’ll find other itemssuch as padfolios, blankets, windbreakers,beach-mats, footballs, stadium cushions,photo albums, PDA cases, and a massiveselection of golf products. Its Debco’sunique combination of award winning customerservice and bountiful stock that hassecured it PPACanada Gold Supplier ofthe Year for the past 9 years. (Editor’snote: Debco has also won 6 CustomerService Rep of the Year awards in the pastward Winning Customer Service And Bountiful StockBy Alex Morin, Sales & Marketing, Debco Bag Distributors (PPAC #920206)4 years, including 2 consecutive Goldawards for Alex Morin; and several awardsfor Supplier Self-Promotion and SupplierBest Catalogue.)First perceptions are vitally important inbusiness, which is why Debco’s highlytrainedcustomer service staff is renownedindustry wide. Each distributor, whether along-time client or first-time caller, is treatedwith dignity and respect and assignedhis/her own account manager. At Debco,we strongly believe in relationship building,which is why our goal is to develop anin-depth understanding of your businessand how we can assist you in reachingyour goals. There are also severalFrench-speaking account managers toattend to the needs of our valued Frenchspeakingclients. At Debco, the staff takespride in the company’s action-orientatedresponse philosophy. That is to say,clients and Debco staff always worktogether to find solutions to challengesand provide meaningful and timely informationto keep you “in the know.” Weknow that prior to sending in an order, yourcall to an account manager is the first contactin a long line of communication. Oncecommunication has been established andyou send us your order, the team’s priorityis to ensure smooth proceedings and rapidexchange of information. If you are set-upon our e-mail confirmation system, you willreceive order confirmation within 24 hours.(If you would like to be set up, simply sendan e-mail address and your companyname to autoconfirm@debcobag.com ).The same set of guidelines applies to thereceipt of your artwork. In fact, for theJen matches crop marks on two-colour film.Debco boasts of havingthe largest inventoryof promotional bagsin all of Canada.Quality control asDebco bagsroll off the assembly line.most part, you willreceive an artworkconfirmation withinhours of its receipt.Furthermore, thegraphic artists willinform you whetherthe artwork meets Debco’s imprintingspecifications or exactly what needs to bedone to the artwork to make your imprintlook outstanding. Once your artwork andorder are matched up, a no-charge paperproofis always sent out to ensure that allaspects meet your high expectations.Upon approval of the paper proof, an elaborateseries of internal checks and balancesis performed to ensure that the bestjob is done on your valuable order and thatit’s scheduled accordingly for production tomeet your in-hand date.Are you ready to enter the print shop? Rollup your sleeves, please… The automaticmachines are swirling at over 400 hits anhour, the transfer presses are heating upto the high 300s, our precision debossingmachines are etching your logo into itsproduct, semi-auto machines are buzzing,the vinyl station hums like a race-car, ourfleet of manual stations are roaring, theumbrella stations are flying, and the productbelt is awash in a sea of promotionaladvertising products. Yeah, just anothertypical day at the Debco print shop! TheDebco print shop defies imagination. Butforget about our fancy machines for just asecond. The print shop’s greatest asset(Cont. on page 10)7

S U P P L I E R P L A N T T O U R10(Cont. from page 7)beyond a shadow of a doubt is its extremelytalented and knowledgeable staff. Theprint shop is where the two worlds of artand science tango. An experienced autoprintoperator will know that despite ourgraphic artists’ perfectly trapped template,they must nonetheless consider the colourof the bag they’re printing on (dark colourswill shrink in the dryer), and consider theviscosity of the ink being used on the job.Then, our talented printer will lock thescreens down to within 1/1000th of an inchregistration. And you thought your job waseasy! Debco has one of the most full-serviceprinting shops in the industry. Fromshooting the film in our own darkroom, toimprinting, to our quality control department,you can rest assured that you arereceiving only the best quality and the verybest service that you’ve come to expect.Expert print shop staff will select theappropriate screen with which to shootyour artwork that can range anywherebetween a 110 – 250 mesh. We aim totake all of the technical hassles out of yourhands and surpass the industry standardin terms of clean and crisp imprinting. Justto give you an example of some of thetechniques the Debco print shop employs,let’s consider a direct imprint versus atransfer. A direct imprint is exactly that: adirect print from the screen to your product.Depending on the product you select,Debco’s print shop will use either a plastisolor vinyl ink that is pushed through amesh screen and onto your product.While different inks require different dryingtechniques, our printer will adapt the dryerbelt speed or dryer temperature to ensureonly the best curing job. And as previouslymentioned, the printer will consider factorssuch as the colour of the bag and itspropensity to shrink in high heat as well asthe best way to trap multi-colour jobs.A typical day’s worth of screens.Many people are often confused with theprinting technique described as a transfer.Allow us to enlighten you. A transfer isused when printing on materials that havewater-proofing (like a 420 denier) or if thesurface is what we call a “surfing surface”(a closed 2-sided surface that doesn’t permitthe use of a pallet and that would “slip”if you tried to register more than one colouron it). Thus to get around such challenges,the Debco print shop uses transferprinting on some products. Simply put, atransfer is a direct imprint onto a specialpiece of paper, which is in turn transferredwith high heat and strong pressure to yourproduct. Think of it as a permanent rub-ontattoo. Without boring you with the details,the process involves printing each colouronto a special paper all in reverse orderand putting each colour through the dryer,as each colour is applied, so that it setsand registers perfectly. Tedious processisn’t it? Lastly, a nyla-bond is sprinkledonto the imprint to ensure a permanent fixture.The results are astounding! One ofthe advantages of using the transfermethod of printing is that it is possible toregister very tight details that just wouldn’tbe permissible with a direct imprint. Afterall, you have to remember that the substraightwe are printing on is not nearly assmooth as paper or glass, or ceramic.That’s exactly why printing on transferpaper first allows for more precision withregard to detail. Another aspect of ourprinting process that will fascinate you isthat largely, the Debco print shop is aneye-hand operation. This means thatdespite the fact that we use automaticmachines for optimal coverage and efficiency,your very talented printer must puteach product, by hand, onto a pallet. Thusif your client is requesting that his/her logobe exactly 1 and 1/8 of an inch from thebottom of every umbrella panel, or preciselycentred from side to side we will getextremely close, but cannot guarantee towithin a small fraction of an inch. That’swhy it’s so important that as an educateddistributor, you understand the capabilitiesand challenges that every print shopfaces, so that, in-turn, you can better educateyour client. That being said, we continueto wow clients all over the continentwith a truly first-class print shop. PMScolour match anyone? No problem… andno charge! Our expert ink mixers use 9base colours to mix over 1400 differentcolours. Each colour that is mixed ispainstakingly double-checked by youraccount manager to ensure the closestmix possible to the original pantone colour.Now that’s service!With multiple pick-ups from all major couriercompanies and daily shipments to theUS, you needn’t worry about shipping. Infact, if you use one of our preferred carriers,you will receive automated shippingconfirmation and the waybill numbersupon shipment of your order. Our goal isto take all the added responsibilities andlet you get back to what you do best!Debco has exciting plans for the future!With the recent addition of stock availabilityon the web-site, the company is trulyusing technology as a means to enhanceour service to you. New and thrilling marketinginitiatives loom just on the horizon,and the addition of new and original productsis always a guarantee. I hope thatyou’ve profited from this “written tour” andtrust that together we will remain importantpieces in one another’s future. ❧Author of this article, Alex Morin,Gold Customer Service Rep of the Year 2004.