District Photo places Tharstern MIS at its core

Print Solutions

Tharstern has secured a ‘significant’ deal to provide a management information system to help District Photo, one of the world’s largest direct to consumer photo fulfilment operations in the world, set up a new commercial print operation called District Print.

In a move that is central to the huge growth aspirations for the Maryland, USA headquartered company, installation has now started for the MIS from Tharstern.

Julian Marsh, director of Commercial Printing, who has moved to Maryland from sister company Harrier LLC in the UK, said: ‘I have worked with Tharstern successfully for different companies for over 25 years. However, for this important project we went out to tender. We wanted to consider all available options.

‘But a really important reason why we chose Tharstern is because its state of the art MIS is fully automated and integrates with all kinds of other software solutions, both back and front end. Tharstern is big enough to have the technology and world class solutions in place, but small enough to cater for us by giving a customised service and solutions. It ticks all the boxes.’

Day to day contact is with Tharstern USA, which was set up two years ago and already operates across north America, including Canada.

The new system also includes the Tharstern API that automates functions such as product mapping, job specification and submission, imposition, stock management, billing and shipping into a streamlined workflow.

District Print is a new, self-contained, commercial print business that sits within District Photo. This new division utilises spare production resource to deliver high volume, high quality digital print at exceptionally competitive prices.

Across the world District Photo deals with up to 200,000 orders a day during peak periods. Its customer base includes retailers and schools needing fast on-demand photos and other products.

‘We are an IT driven business,’ said Julian. ‘The Tharstern MIS will have a crucial role in District Print, our new commercial business.’