Miles Kimball

Stan Krangel, president of the MKC Catalog/Internet division of Blyth Inc., which also operates the Exposures, Boca Java, The Home Marketplace, Walter Drake and As We Change catalogs, outlined several ways to roll with the punches this year and next in a session during the Sept. 16-18 NEMOA Fall Conference in Mashantucket, Conn. As proof, he injected how he’s modernized things at Miles Kimball over the past couple of years.

For nearly 65 years, the Miles Kimball Company has provided consumers with gifts, gadgets and other novelty items designed to make everyday life a little easier and more enjoyable. Now, thanks to digital technology and workflow solutions implemented over the last two years, the Oshkosh, WI-based cataloger has eased its own daily burden by streamlining its production operations. Prepress services, such as scanning and color separations—which had been outsourced previously—are now performed in house. In addition, Miles Kimball has established its own on-site digital photography studio. Certainly each of these tasks required a great deal of effort; however, for the cataloger, the technology