Reinventing Print with XMPie: Statex’s Journey to Personalisation and AutomationRESOURCES

Reinventing Print with XMPie: Statex’s Journey to Personalisation and Automation

CASE STUDY

Reinventing Print with XMPie: Statex’s Journey to Personalisation and Automation

A UK print provider’s journey to scalable VDP and seamless web-to-print eCommerce to create a smarter, faster, and more adaptable print business that’s ready for anything.

"XMPie gave us the tools to solve problems faster. What used to take days now takes minutes – and that means we can say yes to more ambitious projects without compromising quality."

Peter Smith, Managing Director at Statex

At A Glance

The Challenge

How to reinvent a print business for the digital age by combining scalable personalisation, intuitive ordering, and connected systems.

The Solution

PersonalEffect Print (VDP Composition Engine) and PersonalEffect StoreFlow (Web-to-Print eCommerce).

The Results

  • Reduced VDP production time from days to minutes: now generating 25,000+ personalised pages in under 2 minutes.

  • Resource optimisation: Freed up 30+ design/production hours per week by eliminating repetitive tasks.

  • Error reduction: Decreased file handling and data entry errors by 98.5% thanks to system integration.

Background

At XMPie, we love seeing our customers thrive, and Statex – based in Newcastle, UK is a shining example of what’s possible when innovation meets ambition.

With over 30 years in the print industry, Statex has built a reputation for quality, creativity, and a deep commitment to solving problems for their clients. Following a management buyout in 2022, the team at Statex reimagined the business. They invested in new technology, expanded their capabilities, and embraced a bold new vision for how print could work smarter. Today, their services span digital, litho, large format, and mailing, reaching clients in over 30 countries.

Their efforts haven’t gone unnoticed. Statex has earned multiple PrintWeek Awards, including recognition for innovation and marketing campaigns. These accolades reflect what we at XMPie already know: Statex is a forward-thinking partner that’s always looking for new ways to deliver value, and we’re proud to be part of their journey.

Challenge

Statex set out to transform from a print provider into a future-ready technology partner. Client expectations were accelerating, and the company needed to evolve fast to stay ahead. It identified key ways it needed to evolve:

Unlock the Power of Personalisation

Statex knew it needed a smarter way to deliver personalisation at scale. Creating hundreds or thousands of unique PDFs with manual techniques was slowing progress and draining resources. For instance, for one company it was producing 600 store-specific packs with 40+ items each and that meant 600 separate files, an unsustainable process that risked missed deadlines and rising costs.

Create a Seamless Print Ordering Experience

It’s existing marketing portals no longer reflected Statex’s vision. They were clunky, outdated, and hard to navigate, frustrating clients and limiting engagement. Without a modern, branded platform, Statex risked losing ground to competitors offering sleek, intuitive ordering experiences. The company saw an opportunity to turn every interaction into a reflection of its innovation and care.

Build a Connected Workflow

Statex already used the Tharstern Print MIS but it understood that to scale successfully, Statex needed a web-to-print solution that would connect seamlessly to ensure that order entry, job tracking, and invoicing no longer required duplicate effort.

Open up New Markets

Statex could see real potential in the B2C space and a chance to diversify revenue, reach new audiences, and build stronger brand visibility. The education sector, in particular, offered exciting possibilities for personalised products that could make a real difference for schools and families. But this opportunity came with big challenges: managing thousands of small, customised orders efficiently, providing a smooth online experience, and ensuring secure transactions, all while maintaining the quality and reliability clients expect from Statex.

The Solution

"XMPie’s integration with Tharstern wasn’t just a nice-to-have – it was imperative. It let us scale without disrupting the systems our team already relied on."

Peter Smith, Managing Director at Statex

Statex had a clear vision and a list of challenges that couldn’t be solved with incremental fixes. It needed a single solution that could bring everything together – personalisation at scale, a seamless client experience, connected workflows, and the flexibility to grow into new markets. The search for that solution led them to XMPie.

To meet its evolving business needs, Statex implemented two core components of the XMPie platform:

PersonalEffect Print (VDP Composition Engine)

At the heart of XMPie’s personalisation capabilities is the PersonalEffect Document Composition engine, which enables scalable, data-driven print automation. Statex leverages PersonalEffect to generate thousands of highly personalised print pieces across sectors, from education to retail, without compromising speed or accuracy.

Retail Example: 600 Stores, 25,000 Pages in Under a Minute In a complex retail campaign involving 600 individual stores, each location required a unique set of 40+ print items. Previously, this meant manually creating 600 separate PDFs, a time-consuming process that took several days. With XMPie, Statex automated the entire workflow, generating a 25,000-page composite PDF in under a minute – dramatically reducing production time and human error.

Education Example: Personalised Brochures for a Top 5 UK University

Statex used PersonalEffect to create custom course brochures tailored to each prospective student. These brochures incorporated data on academic interests, extracurricular preferences, and lifestyle choices, resulting in a more engaging and relevant experience for applicants and boosting the university’s recruitment efforts.

 

PersonalEffect StoreFlow (Web-to-Print eCommerce)

Statex also deployed StoreFlow for its branded, client-specific web-to-print portals and B2C storefronts. These portals offer a seamless user experience, combining intuitive design with robust functionality tailored to each client’s operational needs.

Seamless Integration with Tharstern MIS XMPie’s ability to integrate with Tharstern, Statex’s long-standing Print MIS, was a strategic requirement for implementing its VDP and web-to-print solution. This integration would allow Statex to scale operations efficiently while preserving its existing workflows and infrastructure.

The integration enables:

  • Automatic ingestion of orders from StoreFlow directly into Tharstern, eliminating manual data entry and reducing errors.
  • Linked job bags, invoices, and artwork, ensuring every component of a job is synchronised and ready for production.
  • Direct routing of digital print jobs to the press via FreeFlow Core, streamlining the path from order to output.
National High-Street Jewellery Brand: Streamlined B2B Retail Ordering Across 100+ Stores

Statex built a branded B2B portal for a nationwide jewellery retail chain with over 100 store locations. Each store has secure login access to a centralised platform where staff can:

  • Order branded print materials such as posters, signage, and promotional leaflets
  • View and manage inventory levels
  • Access pre-approved templates to ensure brand consistency
The portal simplifies internal ordering, reduces administrative overhead, and ensures that every store receives the correct materials on time. Because it’s a B2B portal, access is restricted to authorised staff, and pricing, product availability, and workflows are tailored to internal operational needs.

Storefront Examples

Wow Box Campaign

Statex built a branded B2B portal for a nationwide jewellery retail chain with over 100 store locations. Each store has secure login access to a centralised platform where staff can:
  • Order branded print materials such as posters, signage, and promotional leaflets
  • View and manage inventory levels
  • Access pre-approved templates to ensure brand consistency.
The portal simplifies internal ordering, reduces administrative overhead, and ensures that every store receives the correct materials on time. Because it’s a B2B portal, access is restricted to authorised staff, and pricing, product availability, and workflows are tailored to internal operational needs.  

For a top‑five UK university, Statex developed a staff-only B2B portal designed to support internal departments. University staff can log in to:

  • Order business cards, departmental banners, and branded stationery
  • Track orders and re-order frequently used items
  • Choose from pre-set templates aligned with university brand guidelines

This portal ensures brand consistency across faculties and departments, while streamlining procurement for non-technical users. As a B2B solution, it’s focused on internal efficiency, with no public access and tightly controlled product catalogues.

Wow Box Campaign

To support its B2B growth strategy, Statex launched an award-winning direct mail initiative known as the “Wow Box” campaign, powered by XMPie’s VDP and web-to-print technology. Each Wow Box was personalised to a specific decision-maker at a target company, such as a marketing director or procurement lead. The box included branded merchandise like a coffee cup and notebook, along with a personalised leaflet featuring a QR code. When scanned, the code directed the recipient to a demo version of a web-to-print portal, pre-populated with their company’s details to simulate a live ordering experience. This portal, built using StoreFlow, showcased how Statex could deliver a fully branded, centralised print procurement platform tailored to the client’s needs at speed. The campaign not only demonstrated Statex’s technical capabilities but also embodied its “Easy Life” promise to make print ordering simple, scalable, and stress-free. The Wow Box campaign helped Statex win new business and earned industry recognition for its creativity and impact.  
Leaf Educaation Portal Screenshot

The Leaf Education portal is a standout example of a B2C storefront, designed for public access by educators, schools, and parents. Unlike B2B portals, which serve internal teams, this site is built for external customers and includes features tailored to a consumer experience:
  • Live proofing: Users can personalise exercise books, certificates, and stickers with names, school logos, or messages and preview them instantly before ordering.
  • Instant pricing: Dynamic pricing updates based on quantity, customisation, and shipping options to give users full transparency and control.
  • Guest checkout and account creation: Users can place orders without needing a corporate login, making the portal accessible to a wide audience.
  • Mobile-friendly design: Optimised for educators ordering from tablets or phones, often during busy school days.
 

Results

For us, the solution had to live inside InDesign. Our creative team works fast, and they needed to stay in familiar tools without sacrificing control or scalability. XMPie’s end-to-end InDesign workflow made it possible to deliver thousands of personalised outputs, without ever leaving the design environment.

Peter Smith, Managing Director at Statex
  • Reduced VDP production time from days to minutes — now generating 25,000+ personalised pages in under 2 minutes.
  • Resource optimisation: Freed up 30+ design/production hours per week by eliminating repetitive tasks.
  • Error reduction: Decreased file handling and data entry errors by 98.5% thanks to system integration

Critical Success Factors

  1. Seamless InDesign integration: XMPie’s end-to-end InDesign compatibility was essential. It allowed the creative team to work within familiar tools while maintaining full control over brand consistency across thousands of personalised outputs.

  2. Connected systems: Integration with the Tharstern MIS was critical to eliminate duplicate data entry and ensure smooth job tracking, invoicing, and automation across the business.

  3. Automation at scale: The ability to generate tens of thousands of personalised pages in seconds gave Statex the speed and scalability it needed to meet tight deadlines, reduce costs, and deliver on client expectations./li>

Lessons Learned

  1. Know your audience: For Statex, success with XMPie started long before implementation. It understood that having a clear use case and a deep understanding of its customers’ needs was essential. Without that clarity, it would be easy to overcomplicate the setup or miss opportunities to deliver real value.

  2. Ease of use matters: One of the biggest advantages was that the platform could be led by designers and creatives rather than developers. This meant the team could manage templates, make updates, and deliver personalised campaigns without relying on specialist coding skills.

  3. B2B vs B2C: In B2B, workflows are predictable and relationships allow for back-and-forth. But launching B2C revealed that speed, simplicity, and discoverability are critical – any friction risks a lost sale. With expert support from XMPie, Statex optimised SEO, navigation, and responsiveness, empowering its creative team to deliver fast, intuitive experiences without technical bottlenecks.

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