Commercial printing in Australia, particularly the middle-sized businesses, was never for the fainthearted, especially in the past decade, with the local industry wracked by seismic shifts – massive forces beyond its control that came and went, leaving the landscape strewn with wreckage. And during – and since – the GFC, the casualty list of mid-sized business has grown long.
The latest victim late last year was Paragon Printing, sinking with a ten-colour B1 perfector and a six-colour offset press. The Canberra-based printer became a victim of the government’s ever-growing pivot away from printed communications. And it certainly will not be the last medium-scale print provider to bite the dust.
And yet there are the success stories – showcased each month in ProPrint’s Star Business section – companies that have their ear to the market and have responded with aplomb to the changing needs of their clients. Are they technologically advanced or is there a greater business skillset in the front office or the boardroom? Are they concentrating on core business — the PMP route — or are they diversifying – along the lines of Blue Star and IPMG? What is their secret and can it be bottled?
Platypus in the swim
At Platypus Graphics in Brisbane, the planets are aligned – the 31-year-old, virtually all-offset enterprise with some 100 staff is tracking strongly, mainly with its B1 work, says general manager Aaron Lusch.
Platypus runs two KBA Rapida 106 presses, both B1 and a six-colour, one with a double coater, the other with an aqueous coater. Added to this are two Komori Lithrones, an SP40, ten-colour B1 with a UV coater and an L28 six-colour B2. A manroland 700 six-colour B1 with UV coater rounds out the offset line-up in the Platypus pressroom – all supplied with plates off an Agfa plate setter. There is some digital muscle at Platypus too – a Fuji Xerox 700 SRA3
Lusch recounts that Platypus Graphics changed direction some 15 years ago and diversified into packaging. Nowadays it focuses on its two core activities – commercial print and packaging.
He says that for a mid-sized print business to sustain itself, “its revenue has to consistently exceed its expenses. Most operators that I speak with agree that price sensitivity is high in our industry. Ideally a business will be able to sell to their customers not just on price. However, managing your costs so that you can compete in a price sensitive market is imperative.
“A growth strategy is not going to be possible for all printing companies as the printing industry is overall in decline. This decline is not true for all areas of print and those that want to grow need to identify those areas and put into practice a strategy of doing that type of work better than anyone else,” Lusch argues.
“In summary, to sustain – manage your costs. To grow – identify growth markets and focus on doing that type of work really well.”
With Flying Colours
Tasmanian dynamo Flying Colours has enjoyed significant growth and in most areas of the business, and has doubled its output in the last 12 months, reports managing director Craig Pearce. In fact, the 21-year-old Launceston venture, with around 20 employees, is now looking to increase its plant size by up to 2000 sqm to accommodate an uptick in jobs through the door.
The company offers a variety of services to its client base, including offset, digital, large format, variable data and mail insertion, a creative studio and distribution of merchandising products, explains Pearce.
Offset printing is in A3 format and this all-Heidelberg (litho) shop packs an array of GTOs and SM52 two-colour and four presses, backed by a range of Heidelberg die cutting equipment to meet its packaging requirements. On the digital side, there is a range of Fuji Xerox equipment, including a 5065 and the latest 700. A newly released Versant 2100 will soon be installed to keep up with the demand for variable data printing and to compliment Flying Colours’ creative marketing with VDP processes.
Large-format printing is catered for with an Agfa Anapurna 1600 Hybrid. Says Pearce: “This piece of equipment purely reflects the businesses philosophy of quality print and we have entered this market focused on producing unique and tailored products including glass, acrylics, wallpapers, canvasses and Interior/exterior fit-outs.
Pearce attributes these successes to a combination of diversification and direct marketing. Moreover, he says Flying Colours is focused on providing its clients with a comprehensive range of products and services. “Our objective is to not to engage in the competitive area but to focus on a complete package of products. Why just provide offset print and a small percentage of the financial benefit when we have the capabilities and services to value-add and engage in most cases 100 per cent of our client’s marketing budget?
“I believe our product divisions within the company and our planning and marketing of the services via the media available today have seen us become a market leader and see us double shifting purely to keep up with demand. These are exciting times for our industry and the hesitation to engage or the complacency of many of our competitors has provided us with multiple areas of growth,” he concludes.
What vendors say
Heidelberg A/NZ managing director Richard Timson sees numerous avenues to sustaining and building new business success in the SME sector. “For some customers, it will be investing in smart equipment– offset and digital — to maximise output and efficiency. For others, it will be continued investment in customer relationships. A stronger financial position will lead to easier access to funding and also a good financial relationship with suppliers will ensure continuity of supplies and services.”
So what markets seem to be working for mid-sized printers and what are the areas to avoid, we asked Timson. “Mid-sized printers should predominantly stick to their knitting and deal with second-tier customers, unless they are capable of producing higher volumes with smart machines and are able to meet the larger corporate pricing expectations,” he suggests. “In other words, dealing with the mid and small-sized customers is more appropriate for their businesses.”
Timson also sees a long list of technological enhancements that can boost the success of commercial businesses. His suggestions for the pressroom include automated workflows, such as the new Heidelberg digital rip, space saving CTP devices, fully automatic A3 and A2 offset presses with or without low-energy drying capabilities, A3 digital devices, and inline perforating and scoring – and, of course, quality consumables that are reliable and improve print quality.
For prepress, he urges owners to take a closer look at processless printing plates and also at processed plates using less chemistry. And for the bindery, he recommends programmed guillotines and quick set-up folding machines.
Asked about his vendor company’s mid-sized customers, manroland Australia’s managing director Steve Dunwell says that on the one hand, some of its customers are making use of manroland sheetfed solutions to satisfy their customers, their print buyers, in a better way, that is, highest print quality, inline enhancements such as InlineFoiler, InlineCoating, InlineNumbering, and so on, and automatic technologies (InlineInspector, InlineColorPilot, for example).
In the face of fierce market competition, repeat customers are secured by reliable print quality, creative solutions and fast delivery, ensuring considerable profit and continuous success.
The manroland InlineFoiler now has indexing which gives it even more applications like Inline Sheeter for long perfectors and label printers, which print on very light stocks, means reels can be run with the cut-off adjusted to suit the job.
On the other hand, customers are also using manroland sheetfed technologies to further reduce production cost and enhance production efficiency. This is another way for them to keep competitive in the market. That is, automation technologies (QuickChange options, IntegrationPilot) to improve job changeover and production efficiency, and ColorPilot and InlineColorPilot to ensure the lowest wastage.”
What seems to be working for SMEs? “It seems still hard to say,” says Dunwell. “The general trend is that packaging is increasing incrementally. Due to the big impact of e-media, publishing is dropping. And commercial printing very much depends on different regions.
“Some commercial and publishing printers are transforming themselves to packaging. However due to the pre-press and especially the post-press being different, it may take time for this transformation to work.”
Cyber Australia’s general manager, Victoria and Tasmania, Greg Knight, sees productivity as the key to success – an efficient pressroom can be a medium-scale print provider’s most abiding resource. “They must be prepared to reduce all inefficiencies within their business. They must always be willing to investigate and invest in new highly productive equipment. This will then give them the ability to produce work quickly and competitively. It also gives them the ability to stay ahead of their opposition.”
Knight regards short-to-medium-run packaging produced on highly productive offset printing machines as a growing market. “Having the ability to print on a wide variety of stocks is also advantageous. This enables the ability to enter niche markets.”
“At Cyber together with RMGT (Ryobi Mitsubishi Graphic Technology), we have been promoting several suggestions for ways our customers can both cut costs and add value to their product offerings for some time. Having a press equipped with LED UV technology offers huge savings on power traditionally required for UV printing (up to 90 per cent). It also enables instant drying, providing faster turnaround of jobs.
“With the elimination of spray powder, it enables printers to work in a cleaner and safer environment. There are no VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds) and no ozone emitted. Printing on plastics, board or paper is easily achievable. Other solutions that we have available are inline foiling, casting applications and also chemical embossing. These effects can all be produced inline in one pass,” adds Knight.
Ferrostaal Australia’s sheetfed sales manager, print, David Gunn, explains that print buyers still select for turnaround, price, quality and consistency and are looking for added value, both in the service the printer provides and in the products the printer offers.
“Komori H-UV curing technology combined with the speed, quality and automation of the latest Lithrone presses allow the printer to delivery all these benefits and more. The Komori H-UV system provides instant curing on most materials, including coated papers, carton board, plastic and foil, giving printers the confidence to offer faster turnaround,” he tells ProPrint.
“The elimination of spray powder adds a host of benefits in its own right, better shop-floor conditions, no buildup of powder on the press eliminating production breaks for blanket cleaning, reduced costs and noticeably enhanced colour, print quality and gloss. Energy savings and environmental benefits associated with the Komori Lithrone H-UV range are impressive.”
Gunn sees Komori H-UV technology as ‘a massive leap in terms of quality which end customers clearly notice, even if they have not been informed that their orders were printed with H-UV. The colour precision and almost complete absence of dot gain improves the visual perception of colour.’
KBA Australasia’s general manager Dave Lewis says that the latest range of KBA presses, especially its flagship Rapida 106, can help customers with ultra-fast makereadies, including automated downloading of jobs from KBA’S LogoTronic server via QR codes on the plates as they are being loaded.
“Our QualiTronic camera systems read the 3mm colour bars from the first sheet of the first pull and bring the colour into correct density, referencing a built-in colour database of the customer’s standard CMYK densities and special colours. This saves time and waste. The plates are all loaded in under a minute via our DriveTronic Simultaneous Plate Change, using direct drive technology,” he says.
Lewis adds that the PlateIdent system pre-registers the job before a sheet is pulled and also checks that the plates are on the correct unit.
“Then there’s the fastest running speed of any medium-format press which is 20,000 sheets per hour. We can offer automated pile logistics for packaging applications and we also have our own inline foiling option, as well as inkjet marking systems that can be added to the press,” he says
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