M&M Inc. Visual POP Solutions in Philadelphia has been operating as a family-owned print and signage provider since before World War II when Vincent Mace, an Italian immigrant, wanted to combine his art skills and work ethic to build a new business. M&M Sign Studio was born, although Vincent had to leave the country to serve in the war. Thankfully his dream business stayed alive and was waiting for him when his service ended in 1945.
After this return, he dedicated his life to running a top-of-the-line screen printing and point of purchase (POP) display manufacturing company to service the rapidly growing retail sector at the time. As time moved forward, Vincent was constantly paying attention to the market and adapting to the needs of his customers. Eventually, it became time for his son, Chris Mace Sr., to step up and take a lead role with the company. Now, Mace Sr.’s son Chris Jr. is an integral part of the company, three generations later.
“My father is still very active in managing the business. He, along with my uncle Michael Fell, ran the business for a long time after my grandfather retired, and now my uncle has retired as well,” says Mace Jr. “It’s my father, myself and my two cousins (Jeff and Matthew Fell) that are keeping things running now.”
And “keeping things running” is putting it modestly as M&M Inc. is arguably busier than they have ever been in the company’s long history. In recent years, they have been working on phasing out some inline screen printing presses and scouring the market for the next machine that will elevate their business. Recently, they found that machine in the EFI Nozomi 14000 SD.
“Our thought process is to keep up, and to never fall behind technology. We had the EFI VUTEk HS125 here for five or six years and we were looking for the next big thing in digital printing. We’ve had such a good relationship with EFI for 15 years, they knew our business and walked through our building and had a solution,” says Mace Jr. “We talked about it, it was a little overwhelming at first. Then we went down and saw the Nozomi 14000 SD in action at another printer in Tennessee. We flew down there, saw it run, left there after meeting with EFI and knew it was a no-brainer.”
This decision will allow M&M to eventually phase much of their screen printing work onto the Nozomi, while also reducing the overall power usage of the facility. Sustainability is something the company takes very seriously and it was the motivation for installing a 1000+ panel solar field in 2014.
“This solar field powers more than half of our operations. We generate quite a bit of power in this place, and we have transitioned our lights to LED and now with the Nozomi, our equipment is much more efficient,” says Mace Jr. “We’re hoping to increase our solar power usage to handle about 60 percent of our work. Once we put the new printer in, we can look at the bills and figure out what those savings will be. We could even possibly get to about
65 percent. “
In terms of output, Mace Jr. is expecting quite the bump in efficiency and productivity from the new addition to the shop.
“Screen printing has always been what we are known for and still to this day it is a huge part of our business. We know that screen printing will never go away completely, but we believe this new single-pass digital technology is the way of the future. Up to this point, we’ve never seen digital technology come close to the speed of screen printing, but now it has surpassed it and the quality is far superior,” says Mace Jr. “With this piece of equipment, it will far out-produce our former screen printing output. It will be able to outproduce all of our screen printing and digital equipment combined. Our current production rates have been anywhere between 250-325 signs an hour on our inline presses. Now, with better quality, the Nozomi is going to do 700-1100 signs an hour depending on the material. We also have the ability to increase the speed even more with various software upgrades. It’s probably going to eliminate our need for screen printing presses in a year or two.”
These capabilities can open the door to all types of new work for M&M, including running jobs that would otherwise have been printed offset.
“We have an opportunity now to strengthen our network of partners in the area. They have a need for the smaller run jobs they can’t run cost effectively and that’s where this will come in to play,” says Mace Jr. “We can help with a 2,000 to 4,000 sheet job, or a 50 sheet job easily now. And now the ability to print on corrugated board will open up many new business opportunities. We’ve already started reaching out to companies in our area and we think this type of work has incredible potential for us.”
This decision to invest back into the business isn’t a new strategy. They’ve always been quick to embrace new technologies to better serve their clients’ needs.
“As soon as we saw the new Nozomi press running, we knew that this was the future of digital printing,” he says. “And now was the time to invest to keep the business going for the next generation.”
