ProPrint (PP): CMYKhub has just launched its Caddy campaign for PacPrint, what is that about?

Craig Graham (CG) CMYKhub group operations manager: Everyone knows that in golf it is the Caddy that provides support, advice and the right tools for the golfer to do the job in question, whether that is teeing off, getting out of difficulties like a sand bunker, or sinking the winning putt on the green. It is a great analogy for the way we see CMYKhub’s position in the industry. CMYKhub is the trade partner to provide expert support, advice and tools to enable print business owners to concentrate their time and effort for the best of their business. In today’s high pressure and evolving world of print, many print business owners are highly appreciative of all the support, advice and tools we offer when working together.

 

PP: But don’t you just put ink on paper for printers in a rush?

CG: CMYKhub has always been a pioneering company, which has rewritten the trade print business. We are progressive which means that we are always looking to improve. Our strategy is to get alongside our customers – print business owners – and seek to understand what they are trying to achieve and then show how we can help them reach their goals. We are a long way from an ink on paper company, we take a much broader approach to customer relations and seek to develop real business partnerships that deliver tangible ongoing benefits to our customers.

 

PP: So what support, advice and tools do you mean?

CG: CMYKhub works with its customers  on five key levels; the print product range, OPM software, in providing market knowledge and tailored solutions to enable our customers to target verticals markets, our national manufacturing base, and finally in adding value to print. 

 

PP: Can you break those five areas down into specifics?

CG: Yes. In terms of the print product range we have all the tools a printer needs to produce the products its customers want. So we operate in offset, digital and wide format, providing a huge range of printed product. CMYKhub has positioned itself as a printer’s manufacturing arm. Our investments over the past decade has been huge, and all of that is available to the individual print business. This provides serious strategic benefits, we are not there just to take care of a printer’s peaks.  

 

By working in partnership with CMYKhub the print business owner is operating on a mutually, and beneficial level. Risk is taken out of their business, for if they are not investing in printing and finishing machines they are reducing the financial risks. Furthermore they are not taking the risk of technology obsolescence, we are taking that for them. They can reduce their floorspace requirements, and reduce their labour requirements, in fact some of our customers are now exiting print manufacturing altogether, as CMYKhub meets their needs. We enable them to focus fully on sales and customer relations, without concerning themselves with making massive investments in manufacturing equipment.

 

Even with digital printing, lease and running costs are high which means the owner often cannot get out and sell as they are busy operating the machine. Outsourcing is mutually beneficial as it takes the risk away and provides more opportunity for time to be spent on business development.

Secondly, Online Print Management, or OPM, is a free software solution that allows a printer to store a catalogue of artwork online for the customer to edit and reorder. OPM is the perfect solution for repeat orders as there is no limit to what artwork can be uploaded such as stationery, business cards, promotional or any products which may require custom editing. A custom OPM site assists our clients to build long term customer loyalty and handle small orders with virtually no touch, helping to reduce costs and increase margin.

 

OPM is a great tool, in a typical scenario one of our customer’s clients opens the website, orders their print, we receive the order, print it, dispatch in packaging with our customer’s logo, the client receives it. For our customer – the print business owner – the whole deal has gone through, been printed and delivered, with our customer not having to deal with any of the manufacturing or order processing, in effect they are just taking their margin. Of course, these kind of situations depend on maintaining and developing good client relationships, but it does mean the print business owner is operating on an altogether better footing and is free to get on with developing those relationships, without having to think about the manufacturing side of the business and everything that goes along with it.

 

Third CMYKhub can provide guidance, vertical market information and knowledge to various print buying segments. We analyse our job data. We understand what is needed for different vertical markets, so we can help our customers, print business owners, go armed with the best insights and solutions for different markets so they have a competitive advantage when they are looking at servicing that market. So for instance the needs of the real estate market are different to the needs of the medical market, and they are different to the needs of the festivals vertical. 

Each of these will have a combination of different print products that work best, so for example in festivals, which is a huge print market, the demand is for posters, site maps, A4 running sheets. CMYKhub will get alongside our clients and talk to them about their business, about different verticals, about how best to engage with these verticals, and about what they need to do to service them well. 

 

Fourth CMYKhub is the only trade print supplier that has a national footprint, we have manufacturing sites in Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia. This means that our clients can supply national clients with no problem, they will enjoy reduced time to market, and reduced distribution costs. We can send the same file to be printed in Perth and Sydney, and on the same press, with the same plates and the same ink, so our customer’s client knows they are going to get the same job.

 

And finally CMYKhub is focused on providing added value solutions to enable our clients to offer more to their customers , and in so doing generate more margin. So for instance we run Scodix digital embellishment solutions, we have one each in Sydney and Melbourne. These enable CMYKhub customers to add value to the print they produce, in short runs, with personalisation, and they have been tremendously successful. We had one client who suggested to their customer they embellish the cover of a 48pp booklet, which they did, that customer has now transitioned all its print to them, because they were impressed with both the proactive suggestion, and by the quality of work, and of course by the price they could get it done for.

 

PP: Why is CMYKhub at PacPrint?

CG: We will be at the show because we want to understand what our partners in print and potential partners need from us to do their best in this consolidating and evolving industry.  We are keen to take the opportunity to talk face to face with like-minded people within the print industry and manufacturing. 

 

We will reaffirm our core values and beliefs to the people we want to work closely with. We will share our commitment to helping our customers develop their businsses by showing them how we provide relevant business and market knowledge that will help them achieve their aims. A trade show has an abundance of manufacturing equipment, we want to our customers to have alternatives to investing in expensive machinery, CMYKhub provides that alternative. Once upon a time to be a printer you had to have a press. That is not the case today, to be a printer you need to be able to provide relevant engaging solutions that deliver ROI for your clients. Print manufact-uring is one part of the process, it is the riskiest part because of the capex and ongoing costs, but it is the part that can be successfully outsourced with CMYKhub.

 

PP: What will be at the show?

CG: CMYKhub Caddies will be there with information on the five key functions that we supply the industry; print products, OPM (online print management) software, national manufacturing, market segment targeting, and adding value to print.

 

Most importantly, as a reminder to the industry we can still have some fun and enjoy the process of business if we support each other’s strengths, we will have a golf simulator and relaxed networking area on our stand, all are welcome to try and hit a hole in one, grab a drink, eat some snacks and chat.

 

PP: Do printers just rock up on the stand or should they make an appointment?

CG: We are encouraging people to make an appointment in advance, which also guarantees them a spot on the golf simulator, but people are welcome to visit at any time. There is no doubt they will find it an enlightening experience, and they will guide us to understand what it means for CMYKhub to position itself as their caddy, providing support, advice and the tools to do the job. Printers can rely on us, we are here to support them and support the industry. We look forward to seeing everyone on the stand.