A couple of years ago, FedEx Kinko’s showed up at the On Demand show touting its printing capabilities. Evidently this was not a viable venue for them because their appearance was a one-shot deal. I guess they finally figured out that show attendees were printers who saw them as competition and who were not the least interested in how whiz-bang their operations were.

Well, the Kinko’s name has been buried under the FedEx Office brand, and FedEx has said precious little about how the former “most recognized brand in the printing industry” is faring these days.

So who should show up at this year’s On Demand show? None other than the UPS Store and its sister franchise Mail Boxes, Etc. (MBE). They were there touting their soon-to-be introduced online print ordering capabilities for their 4,300 North American franchisees. The Now-Docs based system is a big step for them, but seems a little late to the game since Web-to-print has become almost a necessity for successful print providers. Obviously, they are pushing to grow their printing services business, but the question remains: What is to be gained by touting that to an audience of print service providers with whom you are competing?

Wonder if they will be back next year?

This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 12:32 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.