Customer Profile: City of Torrance

“For the ease of use offered in a system and the price, Print Shop Pro^® proved to be the best fit for us,”
Gerry Pinela,
Supervisor of Central Services, City of Torrance

City of Torrance celebrated it’s Centennial in 2012 and is the eighth largest City in Los Angeles County. It attracts a rapidly growing and diverse population with its 1.5 miles of beaches on the Pacific Ocean. City of Torrance is ranked one of the top safest communities in Los Angeles County and it competes globally through its myriad assets including diverse residents, flourishing businesses and safe communities. It is home to the US headquarters of American Honda Motor Company and houses one of the top five largest malls in the United States, The Del Amo Fashion Center, located on 2.5 million square feet of leasable space.

Gerry Pinela, Supervisor of Central Services, has managed the City’s print shop since June of 2007. He is a native of the City of Angels and graduated from California State University, Los Angeles with a B.S. in Printing Management.
Gerry worked in the private printing sector for 8 years prior to taking a teaching position at CSU Los Angeles. Gerry taught several printing courses at the University, including introduction to pre-press, color theory and off-set screen printing. He was then promoted to his current position where he oversees a team of 9.

Gerry Pinela, far left, and City of Torrance Central Services Team

City of Torrance has been a Print Shop Pro^® User since 2008. The Central Services department is a “full service” operation offering graphic design, reproduction, bindery and mailing services and produces approximately 3,000 jobs annually which are all processed via Print Shop Pro^®.

Service at its best

We asked Gerry about his favorite types of print jobs. He shared, “I enjoy finding unique applications for our services. One of the exciting jobs we do is creating blue prints for our water department using polypropylene material.” Gerry explained, “Our engineers would be out in the field managing repairs and would have issues with plans getting wet. Polypropylene is water resistant which protects the city’s plans and blue prints. And, our engineers can redline plans and drawings remain safe and undamaged. These are the kinds of things I enjoy. Going the extra mile and thinking outside the box to find a solution to our customers’ unique challenges,” said Gerry.

Keeping More Jobs In-house

We also asked Gerry how he keeps customers from using external printers. Gerry answered, “It’s about providing great customer service and a quality finished product. We focus on giving the customer exactly what they want at a great price and often exceed their expectations.” Gerry added, “We lead tours through our shop and we invite every customer to come by and meet with us once they have submitted a job to build a personal connection.”