PeoplePrint managing director John Weichard has written an ‘Open letter to the Australian printing industry’, in which he said it was only a matter of time before the billion-dollar giant combined quality printing with its already low prices and enormous marketing reach.

“I suspect most Australian printers do not rate the Vistaprint quality and as such do not see Vistaprint as much of a threat,” he said.

However, it is inevitable that Vistaprint will “throw money at their print quality” and “throw marketing at their massive database that they have grown over the years”, he added.

Weichard said that would allow the US-owned firm to create products “with print quality that matches or betters what you can do, at a price you can only dream of”.

[Feature: Vistaprint aims to crack Australia]

Vistaprint has “years of experience in selling print online, millions of customers [and] an R&D budget that is greater than your annual revenue,” he said.

Weichard said the only realistic way printers could protect themselves from Vistaprint would be to take advantage of the technology and marketing power of a partner like PeoplePrint.

He pointed to the risk of failure for printers that tried to invest in their own web-to-print system.

“The problem is online printing is an arms race where size counts and if you are not the biggest or the best, ultimately, you just can’t win.”

Vistaprint did not respond to ProPrint‘s request for comment.

[LinkedIn: Can Vistaprint match you on quality?]

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