Before investing in a Prinova Digital, Knight Abbey Printing in Biloxi, Mississippi, was producing approximately one million stitched products per year. Since the Muller Martini saddle stitcher was put into operation at the beginning of 2024, the number of products has increased to seven million a year. In the coming years, the family-owned company aims to double, if not triple, its volume of variable-data products, which are its specialty.
“Prinova Digital has opened new doors for us and strengthened our market position,” says President and owner Tonya Spiers, whose father founded the company, which now employs around 60 people, in 1980. ”For one thing, we no longer have to outsource jobs to external partners, but can stitch everything in-house. On the other hand, we can now produce variable data products without breaking a sweat.”
Tonya Spiers (President and Owner of Knight Abbey Printing): “The Prinova Digital has opened new doors for us.”
Higher level of attention thanks to personalization
Knight Abbey also produces softcover books, “but saddle stitching is vital to our survival,” emphasizes Tonya Spiers. With the significant increase in the importance of digital printing in recent times – five years ago, the ratio of offset vs. digital at Knight Abbey, who entered the digital business a decade and a half ago, was still 85:15 in favor of conventional printing. Today, digital dominates with 70:30, and in five years, according to Tonya Spiers, it will be 85:15 digital to offset – products with variable content are increasingly being ordered.
This is because customers – namely the gaming industry, retailers, colleges, and banks – expect a significantly higher level of attention with personalization. The print runs of booklets and mailings are between 5,000 and 450,000 copies per job.