Centrum Printing’s move to bigger premises is driving their expansion into trade printing, which director Percy Vij hopes will soon make up 80 per cent of business.
The company has just begun production in its new plant in Chipping Norton, NSW, which at 3,500sqm is more than three times bigger than the former 1100sqm Mascot facility, and it is already producing point of sale advertising with a brand new large format press.
The new facility houses the new six-colour plus coater KBA Rapida 162a offset press; Screen PlateRite Ultima 24000S CTP, which is exposing Fujifilm Brilla HD LH-PLE plates at up to VLF size; and a new Perfecta 168 large format guillotine.
Centrum has also brought over existing kit including its Heidelberg press. Another press will remain at the Mascot site until it is closed at the end of February.
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Centrum is already looking at another KBA press to supplement the new Rapida.
The company now has 28 employees, including five new print and customer service staff just taken on.
Percy Vij says there’s been greater interest from advertisers since the move, and sales staff are having more success getting through to potential clients.
“Our workflow is streamlined and we are definitely a much more efficient and productive operation,” he says.
“The new machine has the ability to do so many things so there’s savings from efficiency and less hassle.
“There’s been huge positive attention, it’s taken us to the forefront and people are now associating us with large format point-of-sale.”
Vij is optimistic about Centrum becoming a strong, high capacity trade printer and says firms from other states and regional areas are already sending them work. “We are here for all the industry, to support and assist them to grow their own businesses,” he says.
Centrum was already meeting with at least one firm about potential trade partnerships at the time of ProPrint’s visit.
Vij says the move, which saw Centrum leave its inner city base where space and power capability were inadequate for the new press, opens up Western Sydney to them.
Linda Vij, Percy’s wife and special affairs and legal director, says everyone in the company contributed extra hours to get the plant open in time. “It was all hands on deck in January, everyone had to pitch in and do jobs they weren’t used to doing,” she says.
She praised Percy’s negotiation skills that allowed the company to get some of its supplies well under budget and says the only issue in the smooth transition was electrical wiring being installed at 110V instead of standard 220V, which needed to be redone.
Linda Vij says they specifically looked for a building designed with power phase correction to improve electrical efficiency and are taking additional measures as well as doing a power audit to see where else it can be improved.
She says Centrum is also likely to supplement grid energy with solar or wind power.
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