Looking to visit a shop in Toronto area

[stickermonkey]

Heya;

I'm from a waaaayyyyy up north. Northern Ontario. Cochrane to be exact. I'm heading down to Toronto May 9th and I'd like to arrange a visit to a couple shops to maybe get some ideas on how to organize and layout my shop. I'm itching to move things around and I'm in diar need of some insight on shop workflow practices etc. I'm just a person that needs to see it to get my head around it. Plus...I just think it would be really cool to have the opportunity to network with a shop similar to mine.

We run 1 JV33 printer, with summa cutter and GBC Laminator. We also have a small roland plotter. We do a lot of brand design and creative work. We also do a lot of outsourced commercial offset printing, for business cards, flyers, borchures, postcards and all kinds of these types of products. We have recently expanded into trade show booth displays and banner stands. This company began back in 1994 under the ownership of my uncle and I've run it since 2000 and owned it since 2005. It went from being run out of his tiny home, to within our family office supply store, to within an art gallery wing to where it is today. We have a heritage building built in 1913. The shop takes up about 1600 sqr feet but we have another 1000 sqr feet that we are working on expanding into. We also hope to build a garage for wrap installations and more.

As you can see...the little computerized lettering business has grown and we are just in need of some insight and ideas on how to manage and organize our work and layout this shop so that we are not tripping over ourselves to get the work done efficiently.

I'd LOVE to have the opportunity to meet with shops in all points between Cochrane to Toronto.

Thanks so much! I look forward to hearing from someone soon!

 

[stickermonkey]

I don't bite!! Just want to network.

 

[Jon Aston]

If you don't get any offers here (and you really don't bite) call my friend Ted Nesbitt at ND Graphics. He's a good guy, former production manager, and can easily get you into half a dozen shops within a 5 mile radius of their location.

 

[stickermonkey]

If you don't get any offers here (and you really don't bite) call my friend Ted Nesbitt at ND Graphics. He's a good guy, former production manager, and can easily get you into half a dozen shops within a 5 mile radius of their location.

I'm acutally going down to go to ND Graphics...and my last point of attack here to arrange this was to call my sales rep and see if he could get me into a couple shops that run similar equipment I run so that I can get some ideas on how to move things around to better suit our growing production schedule. I'm stressed out and have never felt as though I had things set up quite right. lol

Thanks for replying to this thread. I really appreciate it. Where are you from?

Cheers!

 

[Jon Aston]

No worries.

I'm in Barrie, ON. Probably on your route. When are you coming south?

 

[stickermonkey]

heading down on May 9th (Sunday), doing some training at ND. We're heading back North on Wed or Thurs. I'd like to see a few places just to get some ideas. And places that are similar in size and equipment as I.

 

[Jon Aston]

So... How did you make out?

 

[stickermonkey]

hey Jon...ok...now I get the association . lol Sorry...thought you were actually at the seminar I attended last week. lol We made out well...didn't get to visit a shop though. I'm hoping to head back that way in June or July though. I'll keep in touch...so tell me more about your biz? Facebook PM is probably easier than signs 101

 

[Jon Aston]

Will do.

Ironically, I think was actually at ND Graphics the day you were there. The party I was with was being given a tour that passed through the demo room / training facility... where we stood around for quite a while, watching a bunch of people wrap a van. A couple of my old pals from 3M were on hand for the training.

 

[stickermonkey]

LOL...I was there with my hubby & production helper. lol ...that's too funny! The 3M crew is awesome. Such a great company and great people. We were very impressed with their attention to details and support for their products. I'm proud to say that we are just about 100% 3M only. There's just the odd film and of course most of our substrates that are not 3M products. So you were having a tour?

 

[Jon Aston]

I've always been partial to 3M myself - for a variety of reasons.

I was just tagging along on a tour that ND's brass were giving to a couple of new partners I wanted to introduce. (I'm pretty familiar with the place, myself - spent 18 years working for ND).

 

[stickermonkey]

I've been dealing with ND since day 1 of my working in the industry. I can always count on them. It's the first time I've ever been there. Wish I could have spent more time though. My sales rep was supposed to give us a tour...but the day was jam packed and even though we were back in the next mornning to learn how to install 3M's rough texture surface film we had no time to stick around as I had meetings with a couple other suppliers. We don't get down that way too often...and wish I could have stayed much longer. And I never did make arrangements to tour a shop while we were there. Though I did get to see a shop on Steeles Ave, as we were seeing a pc of equipment we are thinking of purchasing. I wish I would have gotten a hold of you sooner...we definately would have stopped in to meet with you on Wednesday.