THIS IS A PROMOTIONAL STORY PAID FOR BY CMYKHUB

Small and medium sized printers are turning in increasing numbers to trade printer CMYKhub to produce their work for them, and the reasons are easy to see. CMYKhub marries the best of the old and the new and has a proposition that is compelling.

The company is a print products manufacturer for the trade, committed to producing quality product through investment in the latest technology. In fact it has probably spent more than any other sheetfed printer in the last three years, with more than $15m invested. Allied with this is its self-developed web to print system, which comes with an online design system. This web-to-print system isn’t for itself though, it is available to all its customers to use as their own.

Trent Nankervis , managing director at the company says, “CMYKhub exists to provide our resellers – print companies – with the means to develop profitable businesses. All our investments in offset printing, digital printing and online solutions are geared to giving printers the ability to go to the market with the solutions it demands, and to be able to produce work at a price that gives them a sustainable margin.

“What CMYKhub offers to smaller printers is the ability to have an online business with a massive new manufacturing plant behind it, both offset and digital, at zero cost, so no risk.”

The free website that is supplied by CMYKhub merely needs the printer to put its own skin on it and hey presto the printer is online. The website not only outlines the print products available but also is a fully functioning web to print system. So to the end customer of the printer it appears as if the website is the printer’s own. It gives that customer the ability to order, and pay for print. With the new design function customers can either use design templates or upload their own artwork. The print order then goes either to the printer itself, or to CMYKhub.

CMYKhub prints the job, delivers to either the printer or direct to the end customer, with the job packaged in the printer’s logo.

The logic and business model is brilliant. Hard pressed smaller printers no longer need to hock the family house to buy a new press which may or may not be obsolete in five years’ time. They don’t need to employ staff, rent factory space, they can just concentrate on selling. It is a new world, where the printer may not actually print, but it is a compelling argument. Nankervis says, “We take the risk away. We buy the $2m digital press which may be superseded by something else in two years’ time. We pay the sick leave. We provide everything behind the shop front. And we provide the online solution. Yes it is a change in business model for the smaller printer, but one that is being warmly welcomed judging by the numbers of printers around the country signing up to become CMYKhub resellers. The huge financial pressures that smaller printers are under are not there, we take them.”

There is no doubt that trade printing is on the rise, thanks to the combination of market dynamics and trade printers’ own developments. Those market dynamics mean it is not easy for smaller printers to get funding for new presses, even if small print owners wanted to, which many of them do not in today’s riskier world. Allied to that comes the offer from CMYKhub, which enables print business owners to put their own skin on the W2P and present it to the market as their own. And behind the website is CMYKhub’s production power, which includes the latest presses in virtually every state and a new HP Indigo B2 10000 digital colour press.

Nankervis says, “CMYKhub has invested some $15m in new production equipment over the past three years, that is probably more than any other sheetfed printer in the country, and it is all for the use of our resellers, the country’s small and medium sized print businesses.

“There is no way for instance that most of those printers would be able to put in the new H-UV eight colour Komori perfector, or the new HP Indigo 10000, but by having CMYKhub as their print partner they can access these great technologies. It also means they do not have to pay for all the costs associated with running their own presses – rent, entitlements and so on – and importantly they run no risk of being left behind in the technology race, CMYKhub takes all that risk for them, if a new whizzbang technology comes out next year that is our problem, not theirs.”

With operations in WA, NT, VIC, NSW and QLD, CMYKhub has made a massive investment to support local print resellers. CMYKhub already has three eight-colour perfectors, two five-colour presses and two four-colour presses in its network, with a further two new eight-colour presses on order.

So what drives this investment and belief in the industry? Nankervis says, “Technology is driving new products, for instance the new B2 Indigo can provide resellers with new products such as presentation folders in quantities as small as 50, this opens up new markets to them. We are keen to continue to support the industry and we regularly work with our customers – we are 100 per cent trade printing – to understand how we can improve our offering to make them more successful.

“New equipment creates new opportunity. For instance the recent addition at CMYKhub of a Scodix digital UV spot machine that allows resellers to offer something new to their customers; the height of the spot UV is amazing and makes an impact.

“The great thing about the hub concept is as new equipment and products are added, our resellers are able to get excited about what they can now offer to their customers, without having to make the investment themselves.”

The hub concept is something that had its beginnings in the franchise world, but which CMYKhub has taken to new levels with its nationwide offering, self-skinned website and investments in new technology.

Recently a leading print franchise group decided to pull out of its own hub and instead signed a partnership deal with CMYKhub. Nankervis says, “We are the preferred printer to a number of franchise groups due to our stand on being trade only. We do not sell to you one day and compete the next.”

It is a brand new business model that the franchise network is entering into with trade print partner CMYKhub. The Brisbane CMYKhub site will be used by all Queensland franchisees for their digital and offset printing.

Equipment includes a Konica Minolta C8000 colour digital press and a bizhub 1200 with black and white output. CMYKhub will also provide four-colour printing.

For small and medium sized printers, franchise printers, copyshops, the CMYKhub concept is clearly working well for all parties, and for many struggling under capex pressures may offer a lifeline to a new way of doing the printing business.

Factfile

Operations: VIC, NSW, QLD, WA, NT

Investment: $15m in past three years

Offset: 3 x 8-colour, 2 x 5 colour, 2 x 4 colour

Digital: B2 HP indigo 10000

W2P: Free to resellers

Web2print for CMYKhub resellers

Central to the CMYKhub business is the company’s online solution, with Hublink job management, the web-to-print system and the online design template.

The Hublink software allows resellers to do quotes 24/7 and keep track of the jobs on order, reducing communication costs for both the reseller and CMYKhub. CEO of the company Trent Nankervis says, “Automation is important when you are dealing with so many low value jobs. Running a low margin high turnover business is risky, so our software is designed to ensure there are no mistakes, so our resellers are competitive.”

Because CMYKhub does not sell direct, it wanted to make sure its customers had great online tools to compete with existing online resellers. Nankervis says, “We have invested well over $3.5m on software in the last six years. Having ownership of the IP means we can supply online solutions to our customers without charging them.

“With our Web2Print and Online Print Management solutions our resellers choose what they print inhouse and what they send to us.”

The CMYKhub online solutions are viewed as a godsend by many of the resellers. This is because they enable those resellers to become online print businesses for no cost and with no expertise.

And they are easy to customise. All the prices are uploaded by CMYKhub, then it is up to the individual reseller to set their sell price. This can be done on a percentage basis, with the same for all, or differing levels for differing products – and there are dozens of products.

The system has been built for small print business owners to operate. Nankervis says, “So for instance say we have a price on business cards, and the reseller adds 40 per cent. If we have to adjust that price, for instance if there is a spike in paper prices to us, and we have to adjust our prices on the system accordingly, then the system will automatically adjust the reseller’s sell price to the same 40 per cent markup.”

The latest online solution from CMYKhub is an online template design solution that has no monthly cost, just a small artwork fee once an order is placed. This means that resellers can offer their customers the opportunity to upload artwork or create their own artwork from templates.

Nankervis says, “Providing our resellers with online templates that allow small and micro size businesses to create their own artwork adds a tremendous amount of value to the website. This makes it easy for the print reseller, saving time to focus on larger local clients.”

Like the CMYKhub web-to-print system the template design site is free for its customers to run, with only a minimal set up cost and no monthly fee. The new system means any printer that uses CMYKhub for trade printing can have a virtually free full online business.

Described by CMYKhub founder Clive Denholm as the ‘missing link’ in a full online presence the new Design4print solution, known as D4P, will enable CMYKhub’s customers to run a full online business, with their customers now able to both order online and create their own artwork from templates online as well.

Digital leaders

CMYKhiub has just bought its first HP Indigo 10000, the new B2 digital printer. Nankervis says, “We bought it for very short run work, maybe up to 1000 sheets, and for work such as presentation folders, and point of sale (POS).

“As retailers multiply the number of SKUs they run, the need for short run POS is increasing. There may be a company that has 20 or 40 retail outlets that each want a poster, and maybe each has its own name on it. The Indigo is fantastic for that, and by installing it here we are offering that new market opportunity to our resellers.

“We are all about empowering our resellers and taking risk away. Not many of our resellers could afford to invest $2m in a new B2 digital press, but because we have they can now access its benefits.”

The company has also just installed a new Scodix digital embellishing system, the results of which can be seen on the front cover of this issue of ProPrint. Nankervis says, “We will use it for spot UV. It provides a great point of difference. Business cards and marketing collateral will stand out from the crowd. It means that we can provide the embellishment for smaller runs, and it is cost effective from one to 1,000.

The Scodix works straight from a digital file, with no makeready or waste. Nankervis says, “It is the first one on the eastern seaboard. This investment means that all our resellers can now access this equipment, which means they can go to market with an added value solution to their clients, but without any of the risk involved in buying the technology themselves.”

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