The dramatic turnaround of Kwik Kopy Clayton from struggling print shop to big profits has reached its apex with Franchisee of the Year the franchise’s top award for 2015.

Owner Mark Prosser says a strong commitment to customer service, hitting the streets to make new clients, and offering a wide range of services is behind the company’s success.

When Prosser and his wife Elaine took over the store in 2001 sales were a third of what they needed to be and ranked 82nd out of about 100 in Australia.

He says the first six months were difficult and it took two years of hard work to get it on track. He doubled sales in five years and then again in the next nine, and now has a turnover of just over $1m with a very decent 25 per cent profit.

“Sales are out there, you just have to go and find them. Everyone needs print, it is just a matter of getting out there instead of just waiting for the phone to ring,” he says.

“We treat our clients like partners, so we sit down and talk about what we can do for them. I do not go out to get sales, just to talk about their business and go from there. Whatever they need, we do it.”

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Prosser says part of it this being diligent in responding to quote requests, always within two hours, and making things easy for the client.

“Even if they go with someone else they will come back later with more potential business,” he says. Sometimes he picks up a new client every week.

“We never take our customers for granted and are continually looking for new opportunities and ways to improve our product and service offerings.”

He says as a result clients are loyal and many have stuck with him for the whole 14 years he has owned the franchise.

Prosser says Clayton has consistently grown 8-10 per cent a year and been a finalist for Franchise of the Year four times in the past six years, now finally winning.

To be a finalist, a franchise must rank in the top quartile for a range of benchmarks including sales, sales growth and profitability, with the winner being best across the board. There were only six finalists this year.

Prosser says his business does not cut prices to win jobs, instead working his partnerships with clients to offer them a wide range of services with the aim of handling all their print needs.

“Kwik Kopy franchises usually do 23 per cent of a client’s printing so we want to offer a lot more even if we just print manage it,” he says.

“I am not going to work 60 hours a week and not make money. Many printers cut prices to keep the door open but end up closing them because margins are too tight.”

Prosser likes to keep as much work in house as possible, both for quality control and to help the bottom line, and only outsources about 15 per cent of work.

The shop runs a Konica Minolta Bizhub 8000 for fast turnaround digital, an Epson 9900 wide format printer, and a Heidelberg GTO 52 for envelope and NCR work that makes of 10 per cent of sales.

“We are always investing in new equipment to improve efficiency,” he says. “When we first got into digital the click rate was 20c and now it is 5-6c, so it is a lot more competitive with offset,” he says.

“We have therefore invested in more finishing kit so we can do almost any kind of finishing, and we also see wide format as a growth area, printing signage, posters, and vehicles, as well as EDMs, websites, and mobile apps.”

Prosser says his goal is to get to $1.1m this year, but does not want to get much higher than $1.2m so he can keep high margins and maintain a healthy work-life balance.

“I’m an old fart now so I want to be able to enjoy myself too,” he says.

The other winners are:

• Production Efficiency – Wing Khong, Kwik Kopy Market Street, Sydney

• Highest Overall Sales – Anthony & Shahna Nixon, Kwik Kopy Perth

• Highest Sales Growth Small Centre – Harm Hoen, Kwik Kopy Braeside

• Highest Sales Growth Mid Size Centre – Garth & Sarah Anesbury, Kwik Kopy Hilton, Adelaide

• Highest Sales Growth Large Centre – Emmanuel Constantinou, Kwik Kopy Bondi Junction

• Highest 121 Creative Design Sales – Paul Vajdic & Zoe Donaldson – Kwik Kopy Richmond, Vic

• Chairman's Award – Gary Kiehne, Kwik Kopy Dandenong

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