Troy Printer Helps Keep Businesses in Checks : The Santa Ana company’s new deal to modify Hewlett-Packard LaserJets to make checks from blank paper could mean explosive growth.

For computer buffs, printing their own checks means buying blanks from their banks with the account numbers and other codes already printed in special magnetic ink along the bottom.

But for corporations like Farmers Insurance Co., there’s the desktop Troy printer. The specially souped-up unit allows agents in any field office to use a blank piece of paper to print everything from the logo to the signature--including that magnetic strip.

Having a Troy printer saves time and money, and it makes managing cash on a daily basis a breeze, said Sherry Koerner, Farmers’ accounting systems programming manager. “We know right up to the day what’s been issued and what’s outstanding.”

Troy, a division of privately held Pierce Cos. in Santa Ana, has been quietly growing since it first introduced the desktop check printer in 1985.

Now it is poised for “explosive” growth, said its president, Robert A. Blanchet. The company recently signed an exclusive contract with Hewlett-Packard Co. to modify HP LaserJet 4 printers and sell them as dual purpose Troy printers.

“The LaserJet has become the industry standard,” Blanchet said. “The HP produces the finest printing available.”

With falling prices--Troy’s original desktop printer cost $15,000 nine years ago--Blanchet expects that the newest line at $3,200 a unit will nearly double the $20 million in revenue that the company had last year.

Troy will continue to offer IBM printers, but the HP units are expected to be the big sellers, not only because of their price and popularity but also because the Hewlett-Packard sales force will be recommending the printer to customers who want to make their own checks.

Troy was founded in 1963 as an industrial engraving company that made print cylinders, or drums, for printers.

In 1971, it began making large, high-speed MICR printers to produce checks. MICR stands for magnetic ink character recognition; the numbers and codes at the bottom of checks have to be printed in MICR ink so that scanners at check-clearing centers can read checks quickly, crediting and debiting accounts instantaneously.

Those high-speed MICR units, starting at $65,000, were for major customers, including the U.S. Treasury Department. Blanchet said Troy controls 60% of the U.S. market and 55% of the world market for check printers. Xerox Corp., its nearest competitor, has less than 20% of either market, he said.

Troy came up with the desktop model for companies that don’t need the speed but could use the versatility and savings that Troy printers and software offered. It eased both accounting and security concerns.

In an insurance company like Farmers, which uses about 225 Troy printers nationwide, the printer and the software give employees the ability to issue checks immediately at the local level while recording the transaction simultaneously at Farmers headquarters, Koerner said.

That gives executives in the home office the ability to manage cash needs easily. Previously, Farmers would have to wait for field offices to send in reports on expenditures, so the insurer had to keep extra cash in the bank to cover possibly unaccounted payments, she said.

In addition, the company saves money on checks. By using blank check stock, Koerner said, Farmers doesn’t waste paper every time it closes an account. The software allows the computer operator simply to key in the new account information.

“I think before, we were typing up checks on a typewriter and mailing them out,” Koerner said. “Now the printer does everything. We like it.”

Progressive Corp., a Cleveland insurance company, uses more than 200 Troy printers in 164 offices nationwide. Executives there figured that even though automating the operation from scratch cost millions of dollars, they expected to recoup costs in less than five years.

Blanchet said Troy printers also save money for firms like property management companies that have multiple accounts or often change accounts. By simply changing the MICR line through the computer, those companies can print checks quickly from numerous accounts and never change the paper. And because there are no blank checks from banks, there is no wasted paper.

“Our biggest problem,” Blanchet said, “is that people don’t know the benefits of printing their own checks. It’s become like letterhead. With technology, you don’t need to buy letterhead anymore. You produce it each time you need it.”