Kleen strike

Kleen Strike (UK)
Celebrates 35 Years
by Laura Heywood
If you try and think back what were a few of the news events of 1983
many would struggle. Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. were
President and Vice President, Margaret Thatcher had already been
Prime Minister for five years, Ron Atkinson, Manager of Manchester
United, took the team to an FA Cup win. It was also the year of the
Brinks Mat Robbery, Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean and Moon Walk
and the birth of the Chicken McNuggett.
Every five years is another milestone
for us - and almost two generations
later here we are. Many people are
confused by our name Kleen Strike.
What does it have to do with toners or
inkjets? It goes back to the pioneer days
of impact. Kleen Strike Inc., my father’s
company, began in Baltimore,
Maryland in 1960. It was a different
business world then. It was the era of
the door to door salesmen. There were
no telexes, faxes, no tele sales, and of
course no internet selling. The main
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mode of printing in offices was impact
typewriters that used spool to spool
ribbons and secretaries typed copies on
2 or 3 sheets of carbon paper with
paper in between. The ribbons were
made of cotton or silk (nylon came
later) and would last for weeks, months
or years depending on the size of the
company. The main products sold were
ribbon spools, carbon paper and
erasers. If you made a mistake you had
to erase the wrong character on the
first page, then carefully erase it on the
second page and third page and then
type it over correctly.
Then the impact industry developed
with the introduction of matrix
printers that used nylon ribbon
cassettes. It was a continuous loop in a
cassette or cartridge, that as it printed,
eventually the ink was used up and
the cassette needed replacing. And
typewriters became more sophisticated
with the introduction of electric
typewriters that used film ribbon
cassettes and lift off tapes.
And this is when Don Barker, my
partner and I entered the market. Don
with his engineering background and
my background with meeting and
talking to people having been a flight
attendant with United Airlines for
three years, we decided to set up our
own company with the technical
support of Kleen Strike Inc.
We introduced a new concept that
was being offered by a few companies
in the USA – a service of reloading
(replacing the ribbon) in nylon matrix
printer cartridges and correctible
cassettes. Doing our research we knew
that in the UK there were a handful of
companies offering a ribbon re-inking
service. But re-inking hammered
nylon, the ink would not absorb as
when it was virgin nylon and would sit
on the surface of the ribbon producing
poor quality printing.
With our Kuhn inker, one of the best
in the industry and 40 years old and a
sonic welder (Branson welders were
used in the car industry but adapted for
the ribbon manufacturing industry. It
would join the two ribbon ends
together sonically. With Don’s
engineering background we not only
inked black and purple nylon but
subsequently inked four process colour
ribbon as well. We had complete
control over the percentage of ink and
the length of nylon we put in our
cassettes.
But we did our market research first.
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We went to Business to Business events
offering our service and the concept
was not so easy to sell. Many had tried
the re-inking service and were not
impressed. At that time you could not
play the ‘green card’. There were only a
handful of regulations regarding the
Industry and ribbon cassettes were
never an issue. It wasn’t till the advent
and growth of laser toner cartridges
when it became an issue and took on
relevance.
Within weeks of setting up the
company, purchasing the latest
Amstrad computer with its ‘start of the
day’ disk and little matrix printer, and
printed stationery we were approached
by a large corporate through a
recommendation that liked our idea
and decided to give us a try. Their head
office was in Liverpool and the
stationery buyer not only loved the
concept but also the substantial
amount of money they would be
saving. A ribbon cassette used in their
tills in their 480 stores nationwide used
purple ribbon and they paid almost
£9.00 ($11.83/€10.12) each. Our
price was a third of this. The stores
would send, via their system, bin bags
full of used ribbon cassettes plus
various film cassettes used at their head
office. Besides collecting their used
cassettes to reload there would be the
odd partially eaten sandwich, used
pens, etc. – and every week we would
drop off freshly reloaded and boxed
cassettes. A few years later when they
switched to toners we continued
collecting the used toners and
returning those. The majority were the
HP2 – and at the time this one cartridge
Ray in the printer workshop
had 85 percent of the market.
It was a stable time. Businesses
hadn’t begun to single source and
kept their stationery and printer
consumables separate and the only
printer contracts were on the large
mono copiers. Equipment was
expensive and people weren’t inclined
to upgrade so frequently. The toner
cartridges were so highly engineered
that they could be remanufactured
many times. At the time there were no
distributors of components with only a
handful of mono toner suppliers on the
market in the UK. Shortly after the
mono inkjets were introduced we
began refilling inkjets.
With our business growing we hired
a British Aerospace engineer that was
about to retire; and with his
engineering background we offered a
very good product. And we had
validation about our quality from
where we least expected it.
The old premises
In the 1998 issue of Customer’s
Voice, Europe’s Independent Digital
Test Laboratory, they had requested the
toner remanufacturing industry to
submit a sample toner, specifically
the HP4 that was fairly new to the
market. They wanted to test the
remanufactured product against the
HP ‘original’ as its standard and we
didn’t hesitate. Submitters listed that
were tested in the issue were Little Red
Book, Xerox, Cartridge Company,
BASF, Lexmark, Toner Flow,
Berolina, Mercia, Retone, Verbatim,
Esselte, OCP, Laserfriend and us.
Several days later we received a call
back from Customer’s Voice
commenting that our toner cartridge
achieved one of the best results tested.
In fact, he mentioned that HP sent over
an engineer to check that we had
indeed used alternative components.
On the 4000 page original our yield
was 110.08 percent; with grey scales
we were rated as “the best of these
tests” and with general comments such
as “about the best overall quality” and
‘Kleen Strikes pristine offering”. The lab
report concluded that some very good
remanufactured cartridges are
available.
In 1989 Don’s son Alistair began
working for us and seven years later in
‘96 Alan Longstaff. Both now Directors
and shareholders are the reason our
operation has run so smoothly and
responsible for Kleen Strikes ‘pristine’
quality. For almost 30 years our
premises in Rochdale were in one of the
buildings of the old Dunlop Cotton Mill
- at one time it was the largest cotton
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mill in the world. In 2013 received
notice it was being demolished, so we
moved closer to the Town Centre where
we are now.
The loyalty we have from our
customers, some for over 30 years -
from schools and colleges and
businesses to the single purchaser –is
because they’re all treated the same
friendly way and give advice and
assistance whenever asked. We’ve had
mothers that come in with their
children to purchase an inkjet and say
“I came in with my mother as a child
and you gave me a cuddly toy and I
treasured it for years”.
And of course, it’s down to the
loyalty of our staff. Sadly we lost
Don last year. He was our
cornerstone. But the legacy he left us
from his exceptional eye for detail to
his engineering skills is with
us still.
Many of our staff have been with us
for many years. Graham for example,
for the past 11 years, always has a smile
and friendly chat as he delivers;
Pauline, our administrator who works
her magic every day; Ray, who not only
repairs printers but also refurbishes
used printers to perfect condition; and
Nathan, following a few weeks on a
company experience special program
we made him permanent and his
unique abilities make him a valued
asset.
And then there’s me. Having such a
great staff has left me time to devote to
an Industry that I have wanted to not
only make a contribution but to make a
difference. And since becoming
Secretary of the UKCRA over 18 years
ago, and with the members support, I
have had the confidence to face a few
important challenges.
• a stakeholder in developing an
international standard for imaging
equipment and cartridges (IEEE
1680.2 - EPEAT),
• meetings with MEP Chris Davies
regarding challenges remanufacturers
were facing by OEMs in
designing cartridges from being
successfully reused and through his
efforts succeeded in ‘design for reuse’
(Article 4) being included in the
WEEE Directive.
• several trips to Westminster to
promote reuse with Environment
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Ministers, Shadow Environment
Ministers, Minister with the DTI,
attended Environment Agency
workshops and contributing to
workshops that resulted in the UK
Government’s ‘Triple Win Report on
Remanufacturing’
• transparency and continued
dialogue with the Environment
Agency that resulted in England and
Wales being exempt waste
management licensing.
There were also accolades along the
way. Kleen Strike was awarded the
Rochdale Business Award in the
category of the Environment in 2013,
RunnerUp of Manchester’s Green
Award for 2014 as well as being
awarded The Remanufacturer of the
Year by The Recycler, and last year a
Lifetime Achievement Award in
appreciation by the global
remanufacturing industry for my
contributions.
Testing inkjets cartridges in 1998
Kleen Strike (UK) new premises
Have we noticed any dramatic
changes in the Industry? None as
dramatic that are happening today –
many companies now include printer
consumables with their stationery
orders, or OEM printer contracts that
lock out remanufacturers, as well as
internet sales of consumables rising.
But by far the biggest impact on OEMs
and remanufacturers alike are the
import of new-build single use clones.
Even a number of remanufacturers are
offering both in order to be competitive
and survive.
What are the next five years going to
bring? Even after all this time, we’re
never able to predict what will happen
next. We’ll continue to offer new and
second user printers, printer repairs,
stationery products and consumables
and even the few nylon ribbons we
still reload for a handful of customers
and should a new concept or
opportunity occur we’ll be sure to
embrace it as we’ve always done. R
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