Wall, window, and even vehicle graphics have taken off, and in-plants are in the thick of this growing business. But who is installing these graphics?
“We’ve had a few [customers] that tried to do it themselves and have had poor results, and then we would reprint and go out and do it for them eventually,” says Eric Nazim, manager of the City of Oklahoma City’s Print and Mail Services operation. His shop, with two full-time and two part-time employees, began doing installations after adding a 64ʺ HP Latex 570 wide-format printer in 2021. Nazim initially did the work himself, drawing on YouTube videos and his past wallpapering experience. Today he has the help of a wide-format operator and a part-time mail employee, and their installation skills are in high demand.
In Alaska, Rich Little, supervisor of the Copy and Print Center at the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA), agrees that keeping wide-format installation in-house is a winning solution for in-plants. It helps save money while maintaining quality and brand integrity.
“If you have a good installer, you look at something and go, ‘That’s not the right color’ or ‘That’s not meant to be that way, so let’s stop, let’s figure it out, instead of just plowing forward,’” says Little, who splits installation duties with his large-format operator. “By hiring an outside private installer, they’re not going to stop. They’re going to just get the job done because that’s their job.”
A Growing Value-Added Service
Across the in-plant industry, graphics installation is a growing service. In 2022, 35% of in-plants provided installation services; in 2024, it grew to 40%, according to In-plant Impressions’ “Trends and Services in the In-plant Industry (2024)” report. Though those that perform installations acknowledge it pulls team members away from their duties for extended periods of time, they still feel graphics installation is a great way for in-plants to enhance their value
Read this full article on In-Plant Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
