PROMOTION
Back in the day when Percy Vij was at university he developed an interest in print, buying his own small press and running a business outside of college hours in his native India.
That must seem a long way from today when this dynamic entrepreneur has just opened his new 3,800sqm premises in Chipping Norton, into which he has installed a new KBA Rapida 162a six-colour plus coater in order to enter the packaging and point of sale markets. And not just on his own behalf, Vij is intending that the new press be available to the whole industry. He says, “We are here to support printers. This press offers printers the opportunity to sell at this sheet size, to sell POS, and to sell packaging print. My aim is to work with the whole industry in collaboration, so that the whole industry can grow.
“Printers will be able to expand their portfolios without having to invest themselves. We are an opportunity for the printing industry, printers can partner with us to take themselves into new markets.”
Centrum though isn’t morphing into a trade-only printer, it is aiming to take a direct line to the packaging and POS markets with the new press. Moving into this size market is a dream that Vij has held and developed for the past decade. He says, “Printers need to be in a niche, to develop the expertise and knowledge and relationships to serve that niche, and to have the means of production is key of course. For a long time now I have known that packaging and POS is where I wanted to take Centrum, particularly with large format, and part of that dream has been to make the press available to the whole industry, to develop good working relations with other printers, so that we can all work for the good of the industry. And part of my dream has been to win back work that has been going overseas, for the good of the industry and the Australian economy.”
Vij says, “Now this press, allied with the rest of our workflow, is up and running, we believe there will be a compelling reason for much of that work to come back to Australia, certainly in the time and cost proposition. I’m serious when I say Centrum is there for the benefit of the whole industry. We have set up a smart workflow in our new facility, which means we are operating at maximum efficiency and maximum productivity. For packaging and POS buyers they now have a viable option in Centrum Printing. The quality will be better than anything they can buy overseas, and we are here to talk to face to face, which is a hundred times better than speaking on the phone to a printer overseas.
The new press is already going down well, even before Centrum moved into its new site general manager Sandra Mascaro said four printing clients, which each spend about $1.5m per year on packaging, agreed to transfer their packaging to Centrum. More clients are expected to follow, she added.
Mascaro told ProPrint that Centrum’s first packaging press would target the sort of small- and medium-run work that the ‘big boys’ don’t do. She also said it would allow the business to diversify into more profitable work and offer clients a fuller service.
Mascaro says, “Our plan at the moment is that we will double our turnover in 18 months. We feel that with the new press, we can offer something unique to our customers and we can target the high-end market. We’ve been limited with our existing presses with the type of work we can do,” she said.
“We need to step out of the box and start to lead the way rather than follow everyone else. We need to do something that’s going to target more of a niche market, something that’s a bit more specialised.” The Rapida 162a will certainly give Centrum a niche capability that will allow it to step away from the overcrowded commercial market. There wouldn’t be any more than eight presses this size in Australia, and most of them are not available to the general trade.
The KBA Rapida 162a has a top speed of 13,000 sheets per hour, a maximum sheet size of 1200 x 1620mm and can print on substrates up to 1.2mm thick.
It is the first KBA press that Vij has bought, he says, “For Centrum the Rapida 162a best suited our requirements. The quality is top of the tree, the engineering is of the highest quality, and the service support is on our doorstep.” Vij told ProPrint that one of the press’s best features was its ability to print on a range of substrates.
Centrum opted for a 162a as it believed it was the optimum size, Vij says, “A 145 didn’t give us all that we needed, while the 205 model was overkill for our market, but the 162a was the perfect fit. At 1.62m it meant we can print life size human cut-outs which are important for the POS business, and it is well suited for packaging in being able to print that size.” Other investments have included a Fujifilm VLF platesetter and a new large format guillotine. One of Centrum’s existing 40” presses was replaced, with the other, a six-colour Heidelberg CD, now relocated from the former Mascot factory into the new Chipping Norton site. Vij says, “It will continue to handle our commercial work while we develop the packaging and POS.”
The new Centrum Printing is a testament to the management skills of Vij, his wife Linda, and general manager Sandra Mascaro. The business went through an evolution following the GFC, which resulted in a leaner operation thanks to a change in culture that has focused on pairing streamlined management systems with accountable staff.
Roles were clearly defined, lines of responsibility established and detailed record-keeping introduced. A key component was the addition of a large multi-coloured organising board. Nobody could claim not to understand the workflow because it was all there in black and white… and blue, purple, pink and green. Management also made a point of sharing all the new statistics so everyone could see precisely what was occurring throughout the business, says Mascaro.
Vij notes that he and Mascaro make a point of caring for their staff, partly out of concern and partly because it makes financial sense. A good example is the training program that was introduced in 2010, and which has seen most employees receive competitive manufacturing, frontline management and business administration training. A trained worker is not only more productive, but also feels more valued, he says.
Centrum’s turnaround wasn’t only due to its internal reorganisation, says Vij. The company also benefited from the newfound conviction that it was better to do less work at higher margins than vice versa. The tough decision was made to ditch clients that would only give their patronage in exchange for unsustainable pricing.
Vij suggests to his fellow printers: “Don’t buy jobs. Don’t do jobs just to get turnover. Only do jobs where you can make money.”
He says he practices what he preaches and is not just willing but happy to reject low-margin contracts. His theory is that his competitors will only do themselves harm if they work at a loss – and won’t have the capacity to bid for the higher-margin jobs that then come along.
The focus on higher margins has seen Centrum move away from print brokers. They haven’t been completely shunned, says Vij, but now “we only work for the print brokers who pay”.
Centrum isn’t in the design business, but Vij says it is ‘aligning itself with expertise’ with design businesses. This alignment, or collaboration or partnership between companies is part of an emerging trend in the print industry, and one that is being encouraged from the top, with PIAA CEO Bill Healey a firm believer. He says, “Print businesses need to realise that they can’t do everything, but as an industry we can. Collaboration between printers is going to be one of the pillars of sustainable businesses in the print industry.”
Vij may spend a lot of time thinking about sales and profits, but he doesn’t want the numbers to define him or his firm. He says Centrum prides itself on its inclusiveness: women represent half the workforce, occupy every department and also occupy senior leadership roles. That’s notable in a male-dominated industry.
One of the keys to sustainability is risk management. One milestone came in December 2011 when the firm started insuring its major accounts, says Mascaro. A close watch is also placed on ‘client dependency’; the largest occupies no more than 5-6 per cent of turnover.
Renewal is becoming a key focus in the printing industry, David Leach, the new president of the PIAA believes all printers need to embrace the concept so that they can position themselves to meet the needs of the market. Centrum Printing is a full blown example of renewal, the company has positioned itself to meet the new demands of the new business environment, with its focus on collaboration and its vision for a new market.
This is a promotional story paid for by Centrum Printing.
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