Hagiwarainsatsu Co., Ltd. (Itabashi-ku, Tokyo) : UJF-6042MkII

Flexible thinking to give a shape to the ideas that customers wish to have and create.

Toshiyuki Hagiwara, President

Conclusive fact in introducing UJF-6042MkII

Good balance of the 3 contents: superior color development, equipment size and pricing
Trust in the support system

Originated from the era of letterpress printing and destined for what's next for printing

UJF-6042MkII

The company was founded in 1953. My father launched a business of letterpress printing and typing/producing documents by typewriters, which is the origin of our business. With the transition of era, the technologies shifted from letterpress printing to offset printing, then to digital printing. But throughout such changes, we have walked along the path of paper-based printing.

However, due to the recent drastic spread of the Internet and wave of digitalization, print on paper has been steadily declining. No one can stop this flow of time. So we had given serious thought to new measures for us to continue the business.

In such situations, we came to know UJF-6042MkII from MIMAKI at an exhibition. They demonstrated printing an image taken by a cell phone on a canvas. The color development was much better than we had expected, and the printing result was beautiful. We realized that it was outstanding even judging from the eyes of the expert. We also compared it with machines from other manufacturers. As a result, the printer realized the best balance between the color reproducibility, print speed, machine size, and the price. Furthermore, Mimaki's sales person provided explanations thoroughly and sincerely. So we took bold measure to introduce UJF-6042MkII.

Thorough analysis on what new target users want

UJF-6042MkII enables us to print on various media including thick acrylic and canvas in addition to paper. Because we can produce novelties utilizing our long-accumulated printing technique and know-how of data generation and proofreading, the hurdle for us to enter the field was low. The machine operation was quite simple, and allowed us to learn it quickly.

After the introduction, I left the business up to my daughter, the executive managing director. She utilized the young and flexible mindset to explore what we can do with this machine through trials and errors.

As orders of the existing original goods and novelties have been taken by precursory companies, doing the same business does not make sense. So we first launched an EC site, and thoroughly analyzed what keywords customers use to search for original goods and what kind of products are big hits of other companies. Since we have mainly been engaged in B-to-B business, we had no data on individual customers' needs. So we first analyzed and considered them thoroughly, then started planning our unique products that we can propose.

Happiness of pleasing customers with our original products

Our established EC site "DIGIPRESS" operates its shop in "Rakuten Ichiba" and the handmade market "minne".

Because original goods are searched by the keywords like baby, child, pet, and anniversary, we developed acrylic frames and key holders of our original design in the style of SNS. We are receiving increasing orders for items with an image of children and pets.

DIGIPRESS gives shape to what customers "want to create" and "wish to have"

Furthermore, we commercialized a series of name tag, umbrella marker, and key holder that can be custom-made with the child's name printed. Customers can select the item from 10 animals so the parents and children can enjoy deciding it together, which is making the series popular. It responds to the needs of mothers who hesitate to write the name directly on the shoes. Many customers repeated to order it because they liked the cute products. When our products please people, it makes us really happy, since we planned them all from design.

We provide a proof sheet for all orders to obtain the customer's approval. We also respond to requests such as image trimming, layout change, and image quality adjustment. These are what we can do because we have been engaged in data generation and design as a printing company, which we consider to be our strength.

Umbrella markers with the child's name printed.

Name tags with the child's name printed.

Toward the next step with use of UJF-6042MkII

As the number of orders increases, so does the request. If its processing is difficult, it may cause machine trouble. MIMAKI always responds quickly, which helps us a lot. As the original goods are often used as gifts, the deadline is absolute. In a situation where we need to print it today or we will miss the deadline, their firm support gives us a sense of security.

In the future, we are going to advance the product development for personal demands while focusing on expanding sales channels to schools, companies, and organizations. Having already received some orders from bridal-related companies as well as schools, we hope to attain more experiences and accumulate know-how, then actively approach the companies and organizations who have had transactions of only paper-based print with us.

In order to respond to diversified needs of customers, we expect MIMAKI to develop new technologies to enable us to create something even more attractive.