MCS, Inc., a manufacturer of industrial inkjet technology, camera systems and digital production products,has announced the acquisition of its Eagle UV-Curable Inkjet system and two Konica-Minolta production digital presses by direct marketing firm Tobe Direct of Louisville, KY, USA.

“We’ve been aggressively expanding our business for the past three years, but 2011 was our breakout year – we grew fifty-four percent,” says John Tobe, founder and CEO. “One of our reasons for this astounding growth was due to a major award from a F50 account for their direct mail postcard business. We were awarded a multi-year contract, which really boosts our requirement for production throughput and added capacity. That’s where the MCS Eagle UV Inkjet comes in.”

Terry Berg, vice president of manufacturing, describes the operation: “We run a lot of 100 lb. gloss cover for self mailers and postcards. Also, we handle some very unique applications, and need to be able to run jobs from as small as a few thousand to several million postcards per job. We chose the MCS Eagle for several reasons, one of which was the permanent print head – there is no switching cartridges between jobs, and no having to manage different inks for different stocks. We also like the speed and the price point.”

The MCS Eagle Inkjet system supports either UV or water-based ink. Tobe Direct found that the Eagle UV dries on the postcard coated stocks faster, adheres better, and outputs a better quality product coming off the line. “It’s fast, it’s inexpensive, we’ve improved our run speed by 33%, and we’re spending 50% less on ink. We can run more jobs with the higher throughput the Eagle offers,” Berg says.

The Konica-Minolta bizhub 8000 color digital press and the bizhub 1200 black and white digital press were also included by MCS with a complete variable data workflow. Tobe Direct is using them to increase its production capacity for direct marketing promotions requiring fully-variable customer offerings driven by end-user buying patterns.

Founder and CEO John Tobe explained the choice of MCS for the digital presses as well as the inkjet systems: “MCS speaks the language of direct-marketers and understands our challenges. They’ve been able to deliver what we needed for workflow as well as hardware. Even the owner is hands-on.”

The Eagle UV Inkjet system was sold by distributor Thompson Direct. Tobe Direct is in the process of moving its plant, more than tripling in size, and making room for additional Eagle UV Inkjet systems.