Impressions - March 2019 - 33

Donray Printing at a glance
C ompan y n ame: Donray Printing
address: 2 Eastmans Rd., Parsippany, N.J. 07054
Foun ded: 1986
n o. oF employees: 25
deCoraTIn G meTH ods oFFered: Sublimation printing
C ompan y WebsITe: donraysublimation.com

Current Trends & Future Plans

Customers can supply a photograph for
Donray to reproduce on a blanket, mug,
T-shirt, towel and more via sublimation.

Holt Mfg., Panel Prints and many other
smaller printing shops were sublimation
benchmarks in the industry."
Many of these companies have since
gone out of business, clearing the path for
Donray to dominate the northern market.
"Now, with a lot of manufacturers going
offshore and with the advent of digital
sublimation equipment, there is not the
same need for domestic offset sublimation,"
Ferriola says. "We, however, continue to
be the go-to company for manufacturers
to turn to if they have orders that are too
large for them to fill with their in-house
digital capabilities."
In addition to apparel sublimation, the
company also offers the process on hard
goods, such as mugs, metal signs, tool boxes,
floor mats, bathroom accessories, license
plates, cutting boards and many other hard
products.
"The fact that we print for so many
different industries is one of the main
reasons that we were able to stay in
business, while so many other service
printers have not survived," Ferriola says.
Production Adjustment
Another factor for Donray's long-term
sustainability was a production shift in
the early 2000s. During this time, manufacturing started to migrate outside the
United States to countries such as South
America and China.
"We began to ship paper all over the
world," Ray Ferriola says."At one point, we
had customers shipping 30 pallets of printed

sublimation paper a week to China from
our New Jersey factory.We knew the shelf
life for this was short, so we decided to try
to find a new direction for the company."
Donray partnered with a printing
company in Taiwan to accommodate its
growing paper orders.Prepress and sampling
were completed in Parsippany, and colorcorrected files and approved samples were
sent to the Taiwan factory for printing
using Donray inks and paper.
Ray Ferriola and his team worked diligently to profileTaiwan's offset press so that
it was harmonious with their own presses.
For four years, Donray used this strategy to
supply high-quality printed sublimation
paper to China factories.
"This gave us the time and opportunity to redirect our domestic plant from a
service-printer mentality to a finishedproduct mentality," Ray Ferriola says.
"While we still supply sublimation paper
to domestic manufacturers, much of our
business now is in finished products. We
produce promotional floor mats, banners,
fanwear, placemats, pillows, tote bags and a
host of other sublimated products utilizing
our printing expertise with various sewing
and finishing factories in the area."
Ever evolving, Donray consistently
pursues new sublimation products to
offer to its customers, angling to produce them on-site or find the right local
partner to aid in production. The company also intends to import or purchase
sublimation friendly products, such as
towels, fleece blankets,T-shirts, bandanas,
etc.

The Donray team constantly has one eye
on current trends and the other on the
novelty of tomorrow.
"The beauty of sublimation is the reproduction of photo-quality artwork," Ray
Ferriola says."This lends itself perfectly to
on-demand printing,with the end customer
supplying a photograph to be reproduced on
a product.This is the future of sublimation.
As a service printer, our history was printing
10,000 units of one design;now,the industry
is calling for printing one individual unit
of 10,000 different designs."
Digital sublimation printing also is becoming less expensive, allowing one-offs
to be a natural fit for Donray. "Advances
in software, digital printing, and packaging
and shipping make this the future of this
industry," Ray Ferriola says."There will
always be a need for offset sublimation
for manufacturers, but the bulk of the
sublimation business now and in the future
will be printing custom, small-run designs
for individuals, clubs, teams etc. with the
use of high-speed digital printing."
Donray is continuing to pursue the ondemand market in search of fresh products
that can help its customers increase their
own sales and marketability.The company
sells decorated, one-off, presewn 50" x 60"
fleece blankets online, with plans to expand
this to other sublimation products in the near
future. Additionally,Donray plans to increase
its in-house sewing/finishing capacity.
"Printing for manufacturers and helping
them utilize the sublimation process will
always be the focal point of our business,"
Ray Ferriola says."We hope to grow our
business by offering new customers with
in-house digital capabilities and the option to print offset paper at Donray when
their orders are too large for their digital
production to handle.We will continue to
lend our expertise in the field to those new
to the process in whatever capacity that can
be of service to them." 
MARCH 2019

P.33
http://www.donraysublimation.com
Impressions - March 2019

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