Cover story: Facing the future of print

THIS IS A PROMOTIONAL ARTICLE PAID FOR BY WHIRLWIND

The business of print is changing rapidly, nowhere moreso than in the small to medium print business sector. Competition has exploded as consumers increasingly search online when purchasing print rather than automatically choosing their local store. At the same time, instant print and design is a growing customer demand. These factors are making it increasingly challenging for a print business to succeed as a combined sales, design and manufacturing operation.

Classifying the sales-design-manufacturing printer as the historic model, Whirlwind Print managing director Andrew Cester asserts it is unlikely to be the model of the future. “Printers need to be asking themselves how graphic design and print will evolve over the next 5-10 years,” he says. Many of Australia’s print companies will be considering this question as they compete in the arguably volatile market. No print business owner has had an easy ride since the great post- 2008 industry meltdown when the twin forces of the GFC and the internet shattered the industry, slashing the number of printers in the market. With no indication that the industry machinations will abate, printers must adapt to remain successful.

“Small and medium sized printers that continue to operate according to the traditional model are taking considerable risk” Cester explains. “The days of buying your Heidelberg press and knowing that was your retirement fund are gone.

“Every printer needs to rise to some big challenges. Will you be able to quote instantly, provide a design concept instantly, offer print management services and deliver a high quality product in 24 or 48 hours, all with little or no overheads? This is what the market will demand, and this is what print businesses need to provide to thrive in the new business environment.”

This sounds like a utopian ideal to many small printers struggling with machinery costs, expensive labour, relentless competition and a bewildering number of technology and investment choices. How can a small printer compete against the instant online design that some global printers offer? How can you be a printer with no printing presses? How can you guarantee nationwide delivery at attractive rates? How can you manage the threat of technology obsolescence?

The solution that Cester and his team at Whirlwind have created for small and medium sized printers addresses the multiple issues that those businesses face. “We believe there is a clear path to profit, which involves changing the business model from being a manufacturer to being a small production sales operation – by outsourcing manufacturing and implementing online ordering and design solutions.”

This is the problem that w3p, the company’s web-to-print solution addresses. It does this by enabling small-to-medium sized print businesses to build a comprehensive online presence at little to no cost. Cester says, “This website and MIS allows companies to increase their professionalism, capabilities and profit”.

Through w3p, customers may order print, upload their artwork or create designs from an inbuilt template library that has thousands of pre-created elements. Cester explains, “A printer’s customer may visit the website and upload or create their own designs, or the printers themselves can create instant designs online. We had a case recently where one of our resellers won a major account at a university because the printer was able to provide the online print management solution through w3p.”

Cester illustrates the potential of w3p through a sales scenario, “consider a printer who is on the road making sales calls, if their customer requests 5000 DL flyers the printer is able to instantly load accurate prices on their tablet through w3p. Should the customer also request a design, the printer can choose from 80,000 design templates in w3p and create a design for their customer within minutes. If the client decides to go ahead with the print job, the printer can process the order on the spot and the end product can be printed and delivered to the customer within a couple of days. It’s fast with low costs and quick profits.”

w3p includes an inbuilt MIS, so printers can manage their entire workflow through the system and it offers flexibility to calibrate their system to automatically print in-house, through Whirlwind or via a third party. When a customer completes an order that is automatically sent to Whirlwind to print and deliver the end product, the printer will still make a margin as the print manager.

“The printer has made no investment in prepress, printing or finishing equipment, and so has eliminated all that risk. They are proofing themselves against machinery obsolescence, as they don’t have any. They have no need to invest in a designer (or design software), are paying no rent, no labor, no sick days and all other labor related costs. They satisfy the needs of the market, produce a top quality job in a super short time frame and determine what margin they want to make.”

w3p also offers a printer the flexibility to target any market, of any size, Cester explains. “The w3p solution is built so that you can choose to target a broad market or you can have a niche product for a niche industry, such as real estate, sporting clubs, weddings, corporate products, financial services and so on.

“The white label w3p enables small-to-medium sized printers to present themselves to the market in the way that they want. They can identify a market and become the go-to printer for that niche.”

Cester reveals the manufacturing power behind Whirlwind’s products. “We only use best-in-class offset and digital printing solutions, so the printer who elects to operate as a sales business, can be confident knowing that the product being delivered under their name is going to be the best quality.”

In fact, Whirlwind is the only trade printer in the country that is independently certified to international standards ISO 9001, ISO 12647, ISO 4801 and ISO 14001, covering quality, colour, safety, and the environment. Cester says, “These certifications have to be constantly maintained and we’re regularly audited by an independent body, which gives our resellers security in the knowledge that Whirlwind has the highest quality production. These standards are essential for a printer’s business development.”

Cester and his team have clearly given a lot of thought to the future of the print industry and the businesses operating within it, and have taken action to create a new, competitive and sustainable model. By offering small and medium sized printers an online presence and manufacturing power, Whirlwind has developed a model that provides today’s print shop owners with a pathway into the future with minimal risk and maximum opportunity.

Whirlwind is currently offering a 30 day money back guarantee for w3p. To learn more, visit w3p.com/au.

To learn more about Whirlwind, visit whirlwindprint.com.au.

 

Whirlwind production power

Whirlwind is one of the biggest trade printers in the country, running a pair of multi-unit perfecting B1 Komoris, a ten-colour and an eight-colour, the latter printing HUV; an HP Indigo and a Fuji Xerox iGen150 for ultra-short run work; complemented by a national next day dispatch service. Cester says, “Our vision is to make quality print easy for our customers to create and order. We have the firepower, and we have the quality control, in fact we are the only trade print with ISO in four categories – quality, colour, safety and the environment. This means that our customers – small and medium sized printers across Australia – buy from us with confidence that we have independently verified standards.

In terms of quality and productivity Whirlwind is currently sitting at the top of the leaderboard. Cester says, “We print offset at 300lpi, we print digital on our iGen150 at 2400dpi, we have the ISO standards, so the manufacturing is as good as you will get anywhere in the world. Now with w3p we have provided printers with an end-to-end print solution from design right through to manufacture and delivery Australia wide.”

Printers who opt for Whirlwind’s w3p have the benefit of 15 years development. Plus w3p is being continuously improved. Cester says, “The software is HTML 5 compliant, which means that printers have an amazing user experience, including a mobile friendly dashboard. Whirlwind is helping its customers become a whole lot more capable and professional, with minimal upfront costs.”

Describing w3p as both B2C and B2B Cester says, “The sky is the limit for printers with w3p. It means their product offering is expanded, their quality is top notch, their customer interaction is taken to a whole new level, their market size expands dramatically, their risk is minimised and their ability to generate profit is significantly increased.”

Whirlwind is coming up to its twentieth year in business, owned and operated by the Cester family. The business expanded rapidly, first offering design services then moving into printing. It now manufactures out of a 9000sqm premises in Knoxfield, south east of Melbourne, with 130 staff across three states (QLD, NSW, VIC) operating around the clock, six days a week. It certainly has the production credentials, and now with w3p is clearing the path for new and profitable print business models in Australia.

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