Cox Target Media, distributor of the blue Valpak(R) coupon envelopes, has announced the selection of BÖWE BELL + HOWELL, a leading manufacturer of document processing and postal solutions, as a major equipment supplier for its new 470,000-square-foot manufacturing facility under construction in St. Petersburg, Fla. Cox Target Media is investing in excess of $200 million in the facility and in an entirely new manufacturing process that will produce twice its present capacity in less than half the time.

 

BÖWE BELL + HOWELL was chosen to provide the Valpak facility with automated mailing systems. These custom, integrated systems were specially designed to meet the Valpak facility's needs, including levels of automation never before seen in inserting equipment. This project includes the first implementation of true robotics for loading and unloading of material and automated job changeover. Cox Target Media was able to move from 85 inserters to nine new custom systems while more than doubling their productivity.

 

"This is such a dramatic business change for us," said Jim Sampey, executive vice president of operations for Cox Target Media. "We have spent the past four years planning and engineering a whole new process for printing, packaging and distributing our Valpak product. This new manufacturing process is somewhat of a printing revolution for us."

 

"We are very excited to be a part of Cox's process change initiative," said Mark Van Gorp, BÖWE BELL + HOWELL's vice president of business development. "The best part for BÖWE BELL + HOWELL is the opportunity to tightly collaborate with the Cox Target Media team. Ours is truly a partnership where we learn from each other and strive to make their vision of a state-of-the-art print/mail facility a reality."

 

BÖWE BELL + HOWELL's BÖWE One(TM) software integrates with SAP, which drives job download and system configurations, all personalized information, and the ability to adjust inventory in real time.

 

The new facility will showcase some of the world's most advanced systems in printing, collation, packaging, warehousing, material movement, and mail distribution. The primary operations within the facility include the printing of about 20 billion coupons per year, and the packaging of those coupons and supplied products into Valpak envelopes for delivery. More than 500 million envelopes will be produced and distributed from the facility each year.

 

"It really is significant because I think it is the best representative example of using this completely new process to modernize mailing," said John Lombard, president, BÖWE BELL + HOWELL.