QuadDirect upgrades Effingham direct mail facility

The highlight of the upgrade, which took a year to complete, is the addition of two new high-speed letter sorters for commingling operations, enabling customers to take advantage of bulk postage rates even with shorter-run jobs.

QuadDirect did not respond to an interview request, but in a statement announcing the improvements to the 579,000 sq. ft. facility, Quad/Graphics Chairman/President/CEO Joel Quadracci said: "Our latest investment in the plant has focused on state-of-the-art inline press personalization, selective inserting and on-site commingling capabilities. The result is a truly 21st-century facility with more of the technology direct marketers need to drive greater response while better managing production and distribution costs."

Quad/Direct said in the release that the new commingling lines allow multiple direct mail projects to be combined into a single mail stream to drive greater postal savings and efficiencies. Inline direct mail production also provides further cost savings by producing an entire mailpiece in a single operation, from paper on one end to a finished mailpiece on the other, bypassing costly and time-consuming offline steps.

The Effingham upgrade is part of a three-year $40 million investment in QuadDirect, which caters to a range of direct mail verticals, including insurance, financial, healthcare and retail, as well as catalog production.