Kalamazoo Security Print reports that it has won a contract to supply Derby County Football Club with what the product manufacturer calls a complete ticketing solution.
Derby County FC required a one-stop solution covering 600,000 home and away thermal tickets, 16,000 membership cards and personalised season tickets, padded branded wallets and renewal mailers. Having worked with Kalamazoo for three years, County decided to outsource all its ticketing to the company.
Kalamazoo has been printing tickets for 10 years and prints for most Premiership football clubs. Derby County’s requirements were complex, the security firm reports, with two different designs for home and away tickets required. Kalamazoo was able to provide this bespoke solution to the club through its on site, pre-press, design and production facilities.
Ticket fraud is still a huge problem for the leisure industry, the firm reports. It points to the recent World Cup 2006 scam shocking the nation as 350 school children were left standing in Germany with counterfeit football tickets. It is important that football clubs recognise the need to protect their tickets from replication and source a reputable security printer. Thermal match day tickets can help by providing an effective way to ensure that only paying customers have access to an event as only thermal printing equipment can be used to print onto this type of ticket. Season tickets personalised by Kalamazoo for each specific football fan can then be checked against a form of identification such as a passport or driving licence at the turnstiles.
What they say
Maureen Bott, Product & Development Manager at Kalamazoo, said: "We have found that the most effective deterrent to stop the trade in fake tickets is using a cutting-edge design, a combination of security features and specialist papers. Although it is primarily the design which deters forgers, special printing features such as holograms coupled with thermochromic and invisible UV ink, Copyvoid and even block foiling make bogus tickets very easy to spot. Copyvoid is a superior form of pantograph technology devised by Kalamazoo to protect tickets from fraudulent photocopies, so that each time a pass is copied, the word ‘void’ appears, rendering it useless. With the addition of coloured centre substrate paper, which allows for up to ten different colours to be used, tickets can become almost impenetrable."
Phil Haynes, Ticket Office Manager at Derby County Football Club, said: "Having worked with Kalamazoo on previous projects, we feel confident in their extensive expertise and the high quality of their service and solutions. Kalamazoo understands our complex ticketing requirements and the necessity for a fast turnaround on the products. With six different season ticket books allocated to certain parts of the ground, we required a professional solution that allows us to personalise our season tickets, prevent fraud and provide a high-level of service to our customers. The provision of a one-stop, quality solution at a good price, made Kalamazoo the right company for us."
