for its neutrality . discussion of this nomination can be found on the talk page . february 2012 learn how and when to remove this template message vistaprint industry marketing marketing services customized products founded paris france 1995 1995 founder robert keane headquarters venlo netherlands 1 area served over 120 countries key people robert keane ceo revenue us 1.270 billion 2014 number of employees 5 100 2014 website vistaprint.com vistaprint is a global e commerce brand that produces physical and digital marketing products for small and micro businesses . it was one of the first businesses to offer its customers the capabilities of desktop publishing through the internet when it first launched in 1999 . vistaprint is wholly owned by cimpress n.v. a publicly traded company based in the netherlands . 2 contents 1 business 2 history 3 printing process 4 patents 5 partnerships 6 founder & ceo 7 controversies 7.1 rewards program 7.2 asa investigations 8 see also 9 references 10 external links business edit the company is based in venlo netherlands and employs over 5 100 employees globally in its offices and printing facilities . 1 the company s u.s. offices are in waltham massachusetts while its european offices are in barcelona spain . its three printing facilities which total almost 74 000 square metres 800 000 sq ft of production space are in deer park victoria australia ; windsor ontario canada ; and venlo netherlands . in 2007 the company was listed in the annual graphic arts monthly 101 listing as the 40th largest by revenue and the 4th fastest growing printing company in north america . 3 through the use of its own patented technology cimpress aggregates large numbers of customized orders from each of its brands and print them in automated production facilities in north america and europe . 4 the company maintains a customer service call center vistaprint jamaica ltd. in montego bay jamaica . it has been staffed by company employees since it was opened in november 2003 . 5 history edit the company was founded as vistaprint in paris france in 1995 by current president and ceo robert keane immediately following his graduation from insead business school . originally starting with business cards as its only product the company expanded to postcards letterhead stamps and return address labels . 6 in september 2005 the company went ahead with an initial public offering and began trading on the nasdaq . it opened a european office in barcelona spain in september 2006 and in 2009 relocated to venlo . the offices of the company president and ceo robert keane moved to a newly opened paris france office along with the corporate strategy division . 7 in a public quarterly earnings announcement july 30 2009 it was revealed the board of directors concluded it was in the best interest of the company and its shareholders to move the corporate domicile from bermuda to the netherlands and to establish a two tier board structure that is typical in dutch corporate governance . the company also established a headquarters office in paris . the company cited internationalism in market objectives operations corporate culture and corporate structure as reasons for the re incorporation . 8 in 2011 the company purchased amsterdam based albumprinter which operated throughout europe under the brand names albelli bonusprint or nskefoto . 9 as the company expanded it retained its subsidiary brands in different locales . in november 2014 vistaprint announced it would reorganize with the intention of unifying and improving their software and systems across the various brands . the parent company took the new name cimpress while vistaprint remained the brand serving north america . 2 as a result of the change company s ticker symbol was change from vprt to cmpr . 10 printing process edit orders are processed online and jobs gang printed using a formula based on type of job paper stock type print run quantity finishing if any and ship by dates among other factors . 11 12 user selectable options are minimized printing standard types of printed materials such as business cards or postcards . within each category only specific sizes paper stocks and ink colors are supported . this results in higher numbers of similar jobs which can be ganged together . changeover time is reduced because there s less need to change paper or inks between jobs . 13 self service design proofing and ordering are handled at the front end through the web with controlled printing cutting packing and dispatching handled at the back end through printing plants . 14 cimpress proprietary process involves multiple software components and the management of multiple production components in an end to end production workflow from click to ship . 15 vistaprint is vertically integrated with production facilities for north america in windsor ontario 16 and for europe in venlo netherlands . 17 18 the company uses presses such as the manroland 700 as part of its printing assembly line . 19 20 computer integrated manufacturing techniques help minimize human intervention and labor costs . 21 using browser based desktop publishing environment customers design and proofread the job . jobs are routed for printing without intervention . the printing is done in a single pass on automated high volume large format professional quality presses . once printed the products are cut down to size using a computerized robotic cutter assembled packaged and addressed using proprietary software driven processes and shipped to the customer . 22 in a form of mass customization using as little as 60 seconds of production labor per order versus an hour or more for traditional printers orders are printed faster and at lower costs than traditional printers . 13 their strategy is to target small run orders usually excluded from conventional large printers . 12 patents edit one of the company s early hires was an in house patent attorney . 23 and currently holds over 100 patents worldwide . 24 the company has described its objective as a minefield of patents and has been active in pursuing companies that it considers to be infringing on those patents . 25 in 2006 the company filed a patent infringement suit against print24 gmbh and unitedprint.com ag . a german court ruled in favor of vistaprint in july 2007 . 26 however after appealing the german federal patent court ruled in favor of unitedprint.com rescinding vistaprint s controversial software patent in march 2009 . 27 separately in may 2007 the company filed a patent infringement suit against two taylor corporation subsidiaries 123print and drawingboard . 28 partnerships edit in 2007 a strategic partnership was announced with officemax to provide an in store station in up to 900 officemax stores in the us and mexico . 29 30 officemax impress is an officemax branded web site for small business printing based on vistaprint technologies . in 2008 vistaprint announced a strategic partnership with intuit a supplier of accounting software tying their service into intuit s quickbooks software using an intuit branded web site . 31 in 2009 the company also announced it will supply services for the fedex office brand . 32 the company announced in 2012 that it had entered into a strategic partnership with staples inc. . 33 founder & ceo edit robert keane founded what is today cimpress in 1995 to provide small businesses with everything they need to market their business . keane s vision for the company emerged from his experience with the development of a retail kiosk design and printing system and from his in depth knowledge of the small business desktop publishing software market . today he leads cimpress and its portfolio of business units with a clear purpose to empower millions of people around the world to make a tangible personal impression . keane previously served as an external consultant to microsoft with the microsoft publisher desktop publishing product team for whom he researched and advised on the graphic design and printing needs of small businesses in europe . he earned his b.a. in economics from harvard college and his mba from insead in fontainebleau france . 34 controversies edit rewards program edit in the us vistaprint has been accused of enrolling customers into vertrue s paid membership reward plan without the customer s agreement . credit card details are passed on to vertrue formerly memberworks incorporated by vistaprint and charges are then made on those credit cards by vertrue without the owner s consent . numerous complaints have been received by consumeraffairs.com 35 and the better business bureau by consumers objecting to these charges including the complaints of still being charged after canceling and that more than a year after cancelling membership the charges began again . 36 vistaprint s partnerships in the united kingdom have attracted criticism . 37 38 critics have stated that vistaprint s customers are enrolled without their knowledge in a reward voucher operated by an associated company vprewards.com at a cost of 9.95 a month and that no information is provided to customers subsequently . additionally it is up to the customers to detect the fact that they have been enrolled as members and to cancel unwanted membership . 39 on november 30 2009 the company announced that it had terminated its contract with an affiliate of vertrue inc. effective december 20 2009 and that it had ended all membership rewards or similar programs . 40 in august 2008 four class action lawsuits were filed against vistaprint . the four complaints alleged that the defendants were in violation of the electronic funds transfer act which protects from unauthorized charges and the federal electronic communications and privacy act which prohibits the unlawful access of financial information for charging relatively small amounts from customers accounts hoping that consumers just won t notice . 41 asa investigations edit in 2011 following complaints from uk customers the advertising standards authority asa investigated pricing irregularities on vistaprint s uk website and leaflet distributions . 42 the asa also upheld a complaint that vistaprint was misleading customers in its 40 worth of printing for a 10 spend promotion . 43 see also edit cafepress customink zazzle references edit a b vistaprint n.v. vprt . yahoo finance . a b adams dan november 17 2014 . vistaprint parent to reorganize expand systems . the boston globe . retrieved may 8 2015 . vistaprint named to graphic arts monthly top 101 north american printers list . prweb . patent 6 976 798 method for processing aggregate print jobs . patft.uspto.gov . retrieved 2012 09 20 . vistaprint opens call centre in mobay . jamaica gleaner . november 21 2003 . cimpress company history . retrieved march 13 2015 . looking to asia vistaprint relocates to europe . internet retailer . may 4 2009 . vistaprint third quarter 2009 earnings presentation script . vistaprint investor relations . wauters robin october 24 2011 . vistaprint to buy dutch photobook software company albumprinter for up to 65 million . techcrunch . retrieved 2014 11 02 . zacks equity research november 20 2014 . vistaprint changes name ticker to cimpress cmpr . retrieved march 14 2015 . vistaprint small orders mean big business . printing impressions . november 1 2008 . a b gang run archived december 7 2008 at the wayback machine . a b vistaprint web masters . piworld.com . 2006 03 01 . retrieved 2012 09 20 . vistaprint small orders mean big business . printing impressions . november 1 2008 . vistaprint grows . manroland.us . retrieved 2012 09 20 . at the forefront of innovation windsor canada at the forefront of innovation venlo the netherlands vistaprint announces opening of north american printing plant . hcp.com . 2005 06 22 . retrieved 2012 09 20 . man roland 700 . printweek.com . 2007 10 04 . retrieved 2012 09 20 . vistaprint closes 52 million equity financing . findarticles.com . retrieved 2012 09 20 . vistaprint manufacturing interview paul tasker archived