Hederman Brothers Bets Big on Wide Format with Mississippi-First Durst P5 350 HS and Zund Cutting Power

Wide format growth stories usually involve one new machine. Every so often, a converter decides to rebuild the entire production chapter at once, and that is exactly what is happening at Hederman Brothers, the Madison, Mississippi-based printer that has been quietly building one of the region’s most diversified print operations.

A first for Mississippi

The company has announced an investment in a Durst P5 350 HS industrial inkjet printer and a Zund G3 3XL-3200 digital cutting system, a pairing that will anchor its expanding wide format division. The Durst machine will be the first of its kind installed in Mississippi, a detail that matters in a state where large-format demand has historically been served by printers further afield. The P5 350 HS is a hybrid platform, meaning it handles both rigid substrates and roll-to-roll media on a single machine. For a commercial printer moving deeper into signage, displays and grand format work, that flexibility is the whole point: one investment serves POP displays, rigid boards, banners, textiles and everything in between, without forcing jobs onto different workflows. The Zund G3 3XL-3200 complements the press with a cutting area of 126 by 125 inches and tandem production capability. In practice, that means the cutting table can keep producing while operators load and unload material on the opposite side, eliminating the dead time that traditionally separates printing from finishing. The system cuts, routes and creases a wide range of materials, giving the shop an integrated path from printed sheet or roll to finished, ready-to-install product.

Capacity, speed and fewer manual steps

“This investment is about giving our customers more capacity, faster turnaround times and even more options for their projects,” said Doug Hederman, President and CEO of Hederman Brothers. “We have experienced tremendous growth in Wide Format, and the Durst and Zund give our team the technology and automation we need to continue that growth while maintaining the quality our customers expect from us.” Brad Stevens, President of Wide Format at the company, framed the equipment as a workflow decision as much as a capacity one. “The combination of the Durst and Zund changes what we can do from a production standpoint,” he said. “We’ll be able to print faster, automate more of the finishing process and keep jobs moving with fewer manual steps.” That last phrase – fewer manual steps – is where the economics live. Wide format finishing has long been the bottleneck of the segment: trimming, routing and grommeting by hand erodes margins on exactly the large, visible jobs that win new business. Pairing a high-speed inkjet engine with an automated cutting table converts finishing from a labor cost into a throughput advantage.

A new 20,000-square-foot home for the division

The equipment announcement is tied to a facility move that will reshape how the company operates. Hederman Brothers is preparing to relocate its wide format operations into a new 20,000-square-foot building adjacent to its Madison headquarters. The breakdown of the space signals the company’s ambitions:

• Approximately 6,500 square feet dedicated to wide format production
• 2,750 square feet of vehicle wrapping bays, sized to accommodate an 80-foot tractor-trailer
• Roughly 8,000 square feet of warehouse and fulfillment space

Vehicle graphics are a particularly telling investment. Fleet and trailer wraps demand long, unobstructed bays, controlled climate and skilled installation crews, and they have become one of the stickiest segments in wide format because the end product is an ongoing service relationship rather than a one-off print run. Being able to pull an 80-foot trailer indoors removes a seasonal and weather constraint that plagues smaller shops.

Integration as strategy

Bringing wide format onto the main campus does something subtler than adding square footage: it physically joins the company’s commercial printing, direct mail, signage, vehicle graphics and fulfillment operations under one roof. Customers of mid-size regional printers increasingly want a single partner who can produce the catalog, the mailbox drop, the storefront signage and the fleet graphics without coordinating three vendors. That consolidation trend has been visible across the industry for years, but the equipment choices here show how a regional printer executes it credibly. The Durst-Zund combination is a common reference configuration among serious wide format producers precisely because the two systems are designed to hand off cleanly – print data flows into cut files, and tandem cutting keeps pace with a high-speed press. The move also positions Hederman Brothers for the segment’s next wave of demand. Retail refresh cycles, experiential marketing, and the steady drumbeat of interior branding projects all feed the hybrid inkjet and digital cutting category, and market analysts continue to project steady growth for industrial wide format inkjet through the end of the decade.

What it means for the region

For print buyers in Mississippi and the surrounding region, the practical effect is shorter lead times and local accountability for work that previously traveled to Memphis, Atlanta or Dallas. For the industry, it is another data point that well-run regional printers are not merely surviving the structural shifts in commercial print – they are using wide format, automation and facility investment to widen their moat. The new facility is expected to come online as the equipment is commissioned, with the company indicating that the combined investment will support growth “for years to come.” In a segment where capacity alone rarely wins, the pairing of machines, space and an integrated service list is the more durable bet.

Source: Hederman Brothers announcement via WhatTheyThink (whattheythink.com).