Employees at Dataflow prepare and install a vehicle wrap at the company’s new Edmeston location. Dataflow acquired Prolifiq Sign Studio on Dec. 1, adding the company’s building, equipment, and employees to Dataflow. (PHOTO CREDIT: DATAFLOW)
EDMESTON — Binghamton–based Dataflow has acquired Prolifiq Sign Studio in a move that gives it four new employees, a new shop space in Edmeston (Otsego County), and expertise in vehicle wrapping and decals.
Dataflow has been actively looking for viable acquisitions of businesses that are a good fit for the company by expanding services and adding value, says Steve Cheek, Dataflow’s chief commerce officer, tells CNYBJ. This latest purchase, which closed Dec. 1, is the firm’s fourth acquisition in the past four years.
While Dataflow was actively looking in that particular region, it was actually Prolifiq’s former owner Kim Robinson who reached out to the company, Cheek says. Robinson was seeking to retire. “She had a qualified team of people and a good list of clients,” he adds.
While Cheek declined to disclose financial terms of the deal, he says Dataflow acquired Prolifiq’s roughly 2,500-square-foot building, two wide-format graphic Roland print and cut machines, one full-size Mimaki flatbed printer, and retained Prolifiq’s four experienced employees.
“Our expertise in the printing and signage industry combined with Prolifiq Sign Studio’s vehicle wrapping and decals, along with their own printing and sign services, will allow us to better serve businesses of all sizes in Upstate New York,” Dataflow President and CEO Dan Zimmerman said in a statement.
Dataflow was founded in 1958 as a small shop for blueprinting. The company offers full-service document and print management services, including branding materials and large-format printing.
With the acquisition of Prolifiq, Dataflow will bring its offerings, like large-format products and services to Prolifiq’s clients. It also offers Prolifiq’s vehicle-wrapping and decal expertise to Dataflow clients in the area.
Cheek states that Dataflow can now better serve all of its clients and the new clients it hopes for, so the bottom line is Dataflow can now provide better service to them all.
The new location also improves Dataflow’s coverage between its Binghamton headquarters and Albany office, which will make sign installation more efficient and cost effective, he adds.
Cheek reports that Dataflow recently launched an online store in order to better serve its customers. “We are constantly, every week, adding new products and services to that store.” Anything from simple building signage like exits signs to customized products are available from the store.
Dataflow offers customers the option to order online, at self-service kiosks in stores, with an employee, or both.
“You can do 80 percent of the work online and say, ‘I need some help here,’” Cheek says. Customers have two options: pick-up or delivery. People still want to buy local, he notes, so it’s important that Dataflow offers all the ways that customers want to buy.
Dataflow, which has its headquarters in Binghamton and new Edmeston, also has offices in Endicott (Albany, Elmira), Corning/Horseheads and Utica. Nearly 70 employees are employed at all locations.