EMBRACING THE POWER OF PRINT POST-HELENE

Advantage Direct Encourages WNC Businesses to Embrace Print to Rebuild and Reach National Markets

August 6, 2025 Asheville, NC. 

As local businesses and organizations rebuild after Hurricane Helene, many are turning to commercial print to reinvigorate their brand.

“We have helped numerous customers supercharge their marketing and break into global markets with our print services,” said John Montcastle, Operations Director of Advantage Direct Printing in Arden. “We’re excited to see our customers bounce back after Helene and we look forward to partnering with other local networks to help them do the same.”

The Importance of Print

Quality print, signage and direct mail can all play an important role in multi-channel marketing to strengthen visibility, build trust, and engage target audiences in a highly competitive environment.

“In an era dominated by digital marketing, print advertising is making an unexpected resurgence.” reports Spartan Marketing Services. “Because digital marketing has become so saturated, print advertising now has the advantage of being unique.”

Quality and Innovation

To keep up with industry demands, Advantage Direct focuses on providing new technology and quality service. Over the past eighteen months they have introduced a series of upgrades that will benefit local businesses, including a Ryobi multicolor offset press and UV printer for high-definition signage and graphics. They have also launched a new user-friendly digital portal to help organizations manage their print and marketing fulfillment online.

“Our latest investment is a Colex flatbed digital cutter. It can make uniquely shaped designs and signage or create custom prototypes and packaging in small quantities on a wide variety of materials” John explains. “This technology is game-changer for our creative community, marketers and local manufacturers who want to stand out.” 

Re-Building Businesses

Last week, a new impact survey by Mountain Bizworks announced 86% of local businesses are still recovering the impact of Hurricane Helene, with support for marketing being a priority to help businesses re-engage with audiences and reach new markets. 

“Businesses are demanding more innovative and personalized customer service that is just not available when shopping for print online.” says John. “We want to provide the best services available to get our local community on track and build back stronger than ever.”

Advantage Direct offers free professional print consultation to businesses and organizations. To learn more contact sales@advantagedirect.ink or visit their new website at www.advantagedirect.ink.

About Advantage Direct

• Advantage Direct (Advantage Printing Inc) is a leading provider of commercial print in Western North Carolina for offset and digital printing, wide format displays, bulk mailing and marketing portals.  

• The family-owned business started as an instant-print store in downtown Asheville in 1981 and now operates a commercial production facility in Arden, NC. Currently there are 20 employees. 

• Advantage Direct is globally recognized as a G7 Master Facility for their expertise in extended color reproduction by Idealliance, a division of Printing United Alliance.

Wide-format specialist oversees the Colex Sharpcute SX as it digitally cuts foamboard for a custom display. Image provided by Advantage Direct

Contact:

Daniel Durand

Sales Director, Advantage Direct

C: 828-707-4687, O: 828-252-7667

ddurand@advantagedirect.ink

www.advantagedirect.ink

Links:

Website: www.advantagedirect.ink

Facebook: www.facebook.com/AdvantageDirect/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/advantagedirect/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/advantage-printing/

Digital Printing Solutions - SPOTLIGHT

Article by Melissa Donovan, DPS Magazine Oct 2023

Taking Advantage of Digital

Commercial Printer and Direct Mail

Digital presses offer efficiency in production, as well as specialty options. This is attractive for commercial printers serving the direct mail space. Not only can they rely on their printer to meet quick turnarounds, they can also offer customers standout pieces with features like fluorescent highlights or metallic undertones.

Expanding Direct Mail

Founded in 1981 out of Asheville, NC, Advantage Direct was originally a franchised, quick print shop. Over the years, its success helped it grow into a consultative commercial print marketing company that today offers a multitude of services—like direct mail—out of a 10,000 square foot production facility in Arden, NC.

Additional services include multicolor offset, digital, and wide format printing, as well as finishing equipment for die cutting, booklet making, and mail inserting—all under one roof. A staff of 18 employees allows Advantage Direct to reach customers on a national level, offering everything from online storefronts and fulfillment to wide format displays and design.

Advantage Direct partners with clients in healthcare, education, real estate, outdoor recreation, and performing arts verticals. Each vertical presents a different requirement when looking for a new direct mail project, according to Daniel Durand, director of sales, Advantage Direct. Two consistent requests the company sees from nearly every vertical include meeting quick turnarounds and standout graphics.

The mid-2000s the commercial printer was confronted with the need to expand its direct mail offering. More importantly, the staff recognized the advantages of leveraging variable data in its work. In response, it brought in a Xerox 260, but quickly realized it needed more capacity.

Our suite of Xerox equipment allows us to bring together a full direct mail package efficiently. - Daniel Durand

Over the years Advantage Direct has owned and operated a series of Xerox production presses including the Color Press 800 and 1000. Today, it runs a Xerox Iridesse Production Press, Xerox Versant 280 Press used for variable color envelopes, as well as two Xerox Prime Link B9125copier/printers for monochrome work.

Committed Customer

There were a number of reasons why Advantage Direct turned to Xerox initially and continues to rely on the vendor today. “Our suite of Xerox equipment allows us to bring together a full direct mail package efficiently. When Advantage Direct was looking to update equipment, Xerox had the answer to increasing efficiency and adding unique products,” explains Durand.

The Xerox Iridesse with Xerox Color FLX Technology offers up to six inline print stations that print in a single pass, at rated speed, with spot on color-to-color registration. The press is rated at up to 120pages per minute (ppm) and up to 475K pages per month.

Advantage Direct’s Iridesse press is equipped with high-capacity feeding and stacking units, which is ideal for printing work more efficiently. Durand gives the example of it being beneficial for long-run variable data postcards for college admissions.

The printer is outfitted with expanded ink stations, which allows for the addition of white, clear, metallic, and fluorescent pink. The team at Advantage Direct enjoys this feature because “it allows us to produce direct mail pieces on dark materials and specialty finishes,” shares Durand.

The Xerox Versant 280 is a mid-production press offering production printing of up to 47 inches at 80ppm and 150,000 pages per month. Users can swap CMYK toners with specialty colors with the Xerox

Advantage Direct works with a portfolio of Xerox presses to produce product offerings like direct mail for its customers.

Adaptive CMYK Plus Kit. Print traditional digital applications with CMYK. Swap out toners for theXerox Vivid Specialty Toner set to run metallics, white, and clear.

The Xerox Versant 280 in Advantage Direct’s location is used exclusively for variable color envelopes.“ As part of our fulfillment and quick turn programs we inventory offset printed letter and postcard shells. This allows us to pull from inventory and print black, variable information on demand with our Xerox Prime Link presses,” explains Durand.

Xerox Prime Link B9125 copiers/printers are designed to bridge the gap between high-performance office print and light production. The devices are available with more than a dozen feeding, stacking, and inline finishing options.

Direct Advantage

Advantage Direct is backed by its portfolio of Xerox presses to continue offering its clients quality service as well as impressive output.

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