Coach USA/Perfect Body scores print production for World Cup wraps

Bernhard Obry, general manager at Coach USA’s Perfect Body service and maintenance center in North Bergen, New Jersey, decided last year to bring the company’s digital printing and graphics work in-house. His timing could not have been better.  With the facility’s proximity to New York/New Jersey (MetLife) Stadium, site of many of this year’s FIFA World Cup matches as well as the final, his shop was about to get very, very busy.

We talked with Obry about how he’s handling the influx of World Cup work, which so far has included 25 bus wraps, in addition to their normal workload.

Q: How large is your facility, and how does the Print Lab fit into it?

A: Our facility is 45,000 square feet. We have room for 30 buses – essentially, we’re the size of a small Walmart, just full of buses. We have all the equipment needed to repair Class 8 vehicles, plus two 60-foot spray booths, a state-of-the-art mixing room, and now the incredible Perfect Body Print Lab. We run it all with 35 employees.

Our Print Lab has two full-time installers and a lead tech manager who has a graphics arts background. We use two 64″ Roland DG TrueVis XP-640 high-speed eco-solvent printer/cutters, along with a Roland DG 64″ cutter and a Roland DG 24″ cutter. Having printing capability in-house has meant higher-quality graphics production and faster turnarounds, which are key for our business.

Q: How did you plan for the FIFA World Cup work that’s come your way?

A: I describe the World Cup as its own “microeconomy.” There are a lot of industries affected by having the games here, and obviously transportation and advertising are two of the big ones.

We’ve been fortunate to have graphics work come our way via our parent company, Coach USA, which is contracted to provide shuttle services for the games, as well as through our partner, Interstate Outdoors advertising agency.

Q: What type of preparation did you do?

A: We started planning for the World Cup work in late March. We met with our supplier, Letra Sign, and began stocking up on media and materials in early April. They’ve also helped us secure ink in large supply — for example, the ink needed to print 10 Lay’s Bandwagon bus wraps in the brand’s signature yellow. It’s not like you can use a base yellow — it’s all gradient, high-definition images. I think I temporarily cornered the market on yellow ink.

We’ve been very satisfied with the speed and color matching from our XP-640 inkjets. We were able to hit Lay’s yellow — no problem. So far, our production has gone very smoothly.

Q: How does the workflow happen in the midst of commuter and shuttle activities?

A: Full-size Coach USA buses are running their regular commuter routes and then being used as shuttles for the rest of the day when games are happening. The streets near the stadium are closed to normal traffic during the games.

These buses are revenue-generation machines, so quick turnarounds are vital. We’ve been running our TrueVis XP-640 printers 16 hours a day for the past eight weeks, fitting in our normal workload between the World Cup wraps. I also brought on six outside contractors to help us install the wraps.

We run on a tight schedule, printing the graphics two or three sets ahead of what’s being installed, so we are ready to start installing them the moment we can get that bus off the road and ready. We have the vehicles in-house for a week, or maybe two weeks at most.

Q: What wraps have you done for the FIFA World Cup games?

A: To date, we’ve wrapped 15 buses with graphics for WorldCupAct.org, Kalshi, VisitNJ.org, and Buchanan’s Deluxe, as well as 10 buses for Lay’s Bandwagon.

Over this same time period, we have also printed and installed bus wraps for Broadway’s “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” and for the 250^th celebration of the founding of the United States for the Department of Transportation, while keeping up with our normal graphics work for Coach USA’s fleet.

Q: What’s next for Perfect Body?

A: Hopefully, we just continue providing great service to our clients. Everything has a cycle. At some point, when the World Cup is over, we’ll have to remove 25 wraps, detail the buses, rewrap them with new graphics, and get them back on the road as quickly as we can turn them around.