An upcoming $30,000 renovation will bring the Publishing and Copy Centre (P&CC) into the 21st century.
The P&CC hasn’t undergone a major renovation since moving to its current home in the JDUC in 1997.
The 127.5-square metre space will be repainted, reconfigured to make room for a new colour printer and outfitted with automatic doors to improve accessibility.
“Our doors are fire doors, so they should really be closed at all times,” P&CC head manager Justin Brooks said. “Obviously that’s a problem because the handles we have are not very accessible, they have knobs. That’s why we want to do automatic, motorized doors.”
The renovations will commence after exams and are expected to be complete by the second week of May. Brooks said the changes will provide the P&CC an opportunity to grow as a service.
“We’re really excited about making it easier for the customer, for students,” Brooks, Sci ’12,said.
Other alterations, including a new colour printer and changes to the space’s layout, are a necessary response to the change in customer needs, AMS Retail Services director Jeff Heenan said.
“The trend has been a lot more printing as opposed to photocopying, and the physical layout of the space hasn’t changed to reflect that,” he said, adding that without the renovations, the service would be unable to expand to satisfy the printing demand.
“We’re doing a lot more work in our back shop, but we’re reaching a limit of where we can take that.”
Heenan said the copy centre can afford the renovations due to depreciation periods.
The service will pay the AMS Board of Directors in installments for the next three years to pay for the printers and depreciation payments will also be used for for the renovations over the next five years.
According to Heenan, renovations were first considered last summer when he and Brooks looked into acquiring a new colour printer.
“There wasn’t really a place to put it,” Heenan, ArtSci ’10, said.
The P&CC currently has seven printers, two are full colour.
The new printer will use less than half of the energy as those currently installed and this could lead to a drop in colour printing prices.
Once new managers start in May, P&CC will conduct an assessment of local competition to determine rates. Heenan said for a single sided, letter-sized colour page, competition charge $0.50 per sheet. The P&CC currently charges $0.60.
Heenan said the P&CC is behind other university print shops and this renovation will provide an opportunity to catch up.
“Western has a print shop about the same size as the P&CC and they’re entirely back shop, they have a front counter and that’s it, and they do about three times as much revenue as we do,” he said.
In the last two years, P&CC ran $10,000 and $70,000 surpluses respectively, Heenan said, adding that this success was incentive to continue the service’s growth.
This year, the copy centre is projected to have a $35,000 surplus.
“Success certainly helps to make a case for renovations. It shows that the service has a lot of potential, but I think the need is there regardless.”
— With files from Katherine Fernandez-Blance
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