Meet Mike and John Morello, Co-Owners of Royal Printing

September 20, 2022 —Newest thINK members and Royal Printing owners (and brothers) Mike and John Morello opened their print business in 1989 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Print was in their blood — not only did they have many fond memories of working after school at their dad’s print shop, but when their dad sold the business, both went on to work at different print companies through their high school years. Already astute businessmen with a hard work ethic, starting their own print business together after they graduated was a foregone conclusion. Mike and John purchased a 1 color AB Dick 360 and added a Heidelberg offset press and several toner devices over the next several years and went on to enjoy success in the print business for over 30 years.

“I attribute our success to our focus on being a consistent, reliable print partner,” Mike said. “Being a print partner that our customers know they can count on is important to us. Reliability is our gold standard. That may sound simple…but if you’re in the print business, you know it isn’t.” 

“It’s much easier to maintain our gold standard of reliability now,” Mike added. “We attribute that peace of mind to our new Canon varioPRINT iX. Since its install about five months ago, we haven’t experienced one down day to speak of, and the quality and color consistency is outstanding; it never misses a beat.” Royal Printing prints perfect bound books, high impact direct mail, and packaging for a customer base that spans the gamut from political to casino, print brokers to ad agencies.

“We’ve been looking at inkjet for years, and it became the obvious choice for us with the dramatic improvements in color consistency and quality,” Mike commented. “We knew inkjet was a significant growth opportunity for us, and we knew the right partner was Canon. We are happy with our choice and with the results we are already seeing.”

Mike and John had the goal of phasing out their toner devices and, to date, much of the toner work has been moved to the varioPRINT iX as part of that replacement strategy.  “Imagine our delight going from 30,000 impressions over 30 hours at a lesser quality to 30,000 high quality impressions on the iX in just one eight-hour shift,” said Mike.

In addition to phasing out toner devices to increase efficiencies and thereby profitability, their second strategy was to transition some offset work over to the iX press as well. This helped them to not only create efficiencies but, more importantly, to increase the value of the printed product. Mike commented, “With variable data capabilities, direct mail is an obvious choice to transition from offset to inkjet, not only to gain efficiencies but also as a way to add more value by printing the mailing address in one pass and creating highly targeted direct mail.”

The varioPRINT iX press also presented new business opportunities, including perfect bound books. Mike commented, “We increased our print service offerings and thereby our revenue with new print offerings like perfect bound books. The sheet size we can run on the iX enables us to trim, finish and collate sheets and send them right to the perfect binder. We love that.”

“Our install wasn’t flawless; we had some hiccups. That is when we got to test who we chose to partner with, and Canon didn’t disappoint. The Service team was fantastic, very helpful and friendly. We chose Canon because of their reputation to partner for success and we wanted to be part of that family. Reliability is important to us to offer our own customers and it is something we expect from those we partner with. Canon delivers that,” Mike stated.

As Royal Printing’s Las Vegas facility is just two miles from the Las Vegas Convention Center, it is the perfect location for those attending PRINTING United Expo to tour the print facility, see the Canon varioPRINT iX in action, and network with Royal Printing and Canon executives. Therefore, Canon and Royal Printing have teamed to host an event on Thursday, October 20, 2022, from 5:30-7:00 pm. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres will be served and transportation from the convention center will be provided. If you would like an invitation, please email info@thinkforum.com.

“On behalf of Canon, I want to thank Mike for throwing open his doors for the event reception,” said Tonya Powers, director of Marketing, Production Printing Solutions, Canon Inc. “We look forward to hosting PRINTING United Expo attendees who are evaluating what inkjet can do for them at Royal Printing’s beautiful print facility.”

Canon inkjet customers have complimentary membership to thINK, an independent community of Canon inkjet customers. thINK is led by a board of Canon inkjet customers and offers tools, training and educational resources designed to accelerate success with inkjet. Canon inkjet customers can request membership by visiting thINKForum.com.

thINK Board of Director Todd Roth commented, “We welcome Mike and John Morello and their entire staff to the Canon family and, by extension, to the thINK family. As a Canon inkjet customer myself, I think you will be pleased to find the vast amount of people and resources available to you through thINK to help you on your journey to accelerate your success with inkjet.”

“We are excited about the Canon inkjet user group, thINK, we have heard a lot about the annual conference, thINK Ahead, as well as the inkjet sales training, lead gen tools and other educational resources available to us. We look forward to attending the conference next year and leveraging the resources and appreciate the support we are seeing come from Canon and the thINK community,” Mike stated.

“There are many benefits to inkjet, and we are happy to see Royal Printing accelerate their success by transitioning their toner work, moving offset work over to the Canon varioPRINT iX to add more value to the page and increasing revenue with additional print offerings like perfect bound books,” said Francis McMahon, executive vice president, Production Print Solutions, Canon Inc. “Our customer’s success is success for Canon. Together we all win.”

To request an invitation to the Royal Printing event on Thursday, October 20 in correlation with PRINTING United Expo, email info@thinkforum.com.

About thINK Forum

thINK is an independent community of Canon inkjet customers, solution partners, and print industry experts, and Canon is a proud executive sponsor. Led by some of the most successful inkjet service providers in the country, it provides a forum for members to network, gain knowledge, discuss common challenges, and share best practices. For more information, visit thinkforum.com.

Canon is a registered trademark of Canon Inc. in the United States and elsewhere. All other referenced product names and marks are trademarks of their respective owners and are hereby acknowledged. Testimonials are based on the actual experiences of voluntary participants. Customers’ print speeds may vary depending on a number of factors, including numbers of copies selected and settings for size, type, and orientation of media.