NORTH CHICAGO, IL—Grafsolve LLC, a long-standing, highly regarded manufacturer and distributor of pressroom/prepress products, announced the formation of its new company division, CRON North America (CRON NA), which will direct sales and service of CRON prepress technology as its new, exclusive master dealer in the US and Canada.
In partnering with CRON, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of quality-engineered CTP devices with more than 4,000 installations across the globe, Grafsolve becomes an even more highly endowed, one-stop source for a full gamut of prepress and pressroom technology. Working closely with its expansive network of regional dealers strategically located across the US and Canada, Grafsolve, through CRON North America, will provide complete sales and service support to commercial, packaging, flexo and in-plant offset printing operations looking for a dependable, affordable solutions provider to meet their production demands.
Grafsolve President Brian Bromberg welcomes Tony Ruth, well-known and acknowledged expert in the printing and prepress industry, as CRON North America’s executive vice president responsible for the management and growth of the new division’s business operations. “As exciting as the CRON partnership is for us at Grafsolve, we are equally thrilled to have a veteran of Tony Ruth’s stature, guiding this new enterprise for us. We believe the sky is the limit and expect existing customers and many future customers to realize solid, measurable production improvements with our CRON North America’s new technology and team,” Bromberg said.
Ruth, who is well versed in CRON CTP performance capabilities, having provided input into CRON’s engineering and manufacturing of the CRON devices sold and installed in the US and Canada, is implementing a comprehensive program of inventory, installation, parts and support to be delivered by CRON North America that he says will be unmatched in this prepress segment of the US printing market.
“We have examined the key deliverables needed for effective CTP sales and support, talked with printers throughout the country, and found that other CTP providers have fallen short of customer expectations. At CRON North America, we are building into our company structure the components of customer-first service. As we roll out our products, we will have an expanded CTP unit inventory to positively meet the needs of our customers. That will mean short lead times for equipment and more customer options.”
“CRON North America will also carry an increased parts inventory. We are actively staffing a broader, more fully trained, service network. Customers will be able to directly contact a dedicated CSR. We will have real, live people answering customers’ calls—no auto-respondent message redirects,” Ruth added.
Grafsolve’s complete portfolio of pressroom products that complement its new CTP lineup include a full line of water-based and specialty products for the printing industry. CRON North America, through its dealer network will be able to supply inks, offset printing plates, fountain solutions, silicone emulsions, blanket and roller washes, UV coatings, filters, adhesives and many other consumables used in prepress and pressroom operations on a daily basis. In addition to maintaining one of the US’s largest inventory of industry-leading Blackwood plates manufactured by CRON, CRON North America dealers also represent Epple Inks, through a partnership relationship with the US division of the world’s largest manufacturer of premium quality offset inks.
Another example of the company’s commitment to customer-first service will be the company’s new CRON NA Customer Center. Bromberg explains, “Already under construction in our North Chicago facility is our new CRON training center and demo room, which will feature fully functionally models of our CRON CTP devices on which our customers’ prepress operators can be trained. Also, our dealers and their prospective customers will be able to come in and ‘kick the tires,’ putting our equipment through its paces using plates and images of their choosing. This is a sizeable investment that we believe is crucial to our customer-first mission.”
“Additionally, we have installed new plate-cutting equipment that yields customized plate configurations to further meet the specific needs of our customers. This service is quite unique among print/prepress consumables providers,” Bromberg added.