In July 2016, we were lucky enough to finalise a project for the illustrious Theatre Royal Stratford East playhouse. First opened in 1884, this historic landmark based near the Westfield shopping centre and imposing Olympic Stadium has seen immense change over the years. Despite this, the company continues to perform nationally acclaimed works from both local and international artists.
We first introduced ourselves to the Royal Theatre in July 2012, where we found that their current supplier was no longer able to support them. The machines they were left with required servicing, a service their provider could no longer perform. We serviced the machines and what soon became clear was that they would benefit from a print audit, to truly understand what they were paying and why.
The biggest issue that the Theatre Royal faced was the diversity of their machines. Not only were they running Olivetti and Toshiba multifunction printers, there were also more than half a dozen HP desktop printers churning out paper too. This meant that they had to order different supplies from different manufacturers to meet their requirements.
What was equally concerning was the condition of the machines the company was leasing. They were unreliable with ongoing service problems, yet the length of the contract demanded that they continue to pay. On top of this, a maintenance fee had been included in the lease. With the previous supplier in administration, they received no support and yet were forced to continue paying due to the length of the lease.
Even the wastage costs were causing great concern. In terms of paper, there were often printouts that remained unused and uncollected, and the excessive use of colour print was leading to huge quantities of ink and toner being consumed.
It was clear that a solution was required to bring this historical landmark into the 21st century and to save them the money that was currently being haemorrhaged.
Our initial recommendation was to allow the leased machine’s contract to naturally expire, whilst asking us to continue performing maintenance on a cost effective ‘time and material’ basis. Although this was still an ongoing cost, we saw this as the most efficient way to address the issue.
We then conducted our print audit, the problem of having so many HP desktop machines was immediately clear. We removed all seven, replacing them with a single, high performance refurbished Lexmark MFP, a device accessible by the entire network.
Our final recommendation came when the leased machine finally expired. At this point, we proposed the introduction of three new Ricoh machines as a replacement, and the integration of PaperCut print management software to further address the problems of wastage.
The subsequent savings were extensive. With the HP desktops removed and the leased machine replaced by our Ricoh alternatives, the Theatre were able to calculate an average saving of £237.08 per month after the first year. Over a five year period, this equates to £14,000.
PaperCut played a considerable role too, both by encouraging them to print in more efficient grayscale and also thanks to encouraging 14,000 fewer pages to be printed. They were able to achieve this due to the PaperCut unreleased jobs function, resulting in 18% less paper being used.
As well as financially, the Theatre has also benefitted environmentally. By cutting down on waste paper and minimising the amount of machines in favour of more eco-friendly ones, the Theatre Royal has reduced their carbon footprint. This has allowed them to exceed their environmental action plan targets, putting them in a highly ‘green’ position.
If you would like to find out more about our work with the Theatre Royal Stratford East, or are in need of your own printing support, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.