This article first appeared in the May 2025 issue of Australian Printer and is the second part to this story.

Australia the cash cow

All eyes were on Cactus Imaging’s growth, and in 2007, Ferrel and Spicer received an acquisition proposal from New Zealand private equity company, Knox Investment Partners, also a major shareholder in Opus Group. Knox Investment Partners had previously purchased Cactus Imaging’s New Zealand operations.

“Warwick and I didn’t want to sell the Australian business as it was our cash cow. The business was doing very, very well so we refused their first offer,” Ferrel said.

However, when the investment firm came back with a counteroffer, it was a deal they could not refuse. By this time, Spicer was close to retirement age – he left the business within a week of its purchase by Knox Investment while Ferrel and Nigel Spicer (Warwick’s son) continued with the business. “Warwick’s leadership, his business acumen, his inspiration, and more importantly, his continued friendship has had such an enormous impact on both my life and career,” Ferrel said.

Opus Group went on to purchase several other top printers of its time including McPherson’s Printing in Melbourne, CanPrint in Canberra, and Ligare in Sydney. However, Opus started facing revenue declines.

“When this happened, several of Opus’ acquisitions including Cactus Imaging were ‘bailed out’ by CK Lau in Hong Kong. Following that, he put Cactus Imaging up for sale as large format wasn’t his thing and he wanted to focus on book printing, which was more in tune with the offerings of Ligare and McPherson’s Printing,” Ferrel said.

“I discussed it with Brendon Cook, the founder and then CEO of oOh!media before he retired, and the company bought Cactus Imaging for a very good price. This provided, and still provides today, surety supply and reinvestment in equipment for Cactus Imaging.”

At the forefront of technology

With such a strong history backing it, Cactus Imaging has become a market leader today. It owned – and owns – the latest and greatest printing and finishing equipment and has spent millions on automation to support its clients and staff.

Previously, along with the NUR Blueboard HiQ Plus machine, Cactus Imaging had a few other firsts when it came to technology. The innovation-forward business owned the world’s first HP Scitex TurboJet 8500, fourth HP Scitex XP5100, and second HP Scitex XP5500 in its heyday.

It was also the first in the southern hemisphere to go from solvent to UV. In more recent years, Cactus Imaging purchased the southern hemisphere’s first Durst Rho 512R roll-to-roll UV-curable printer in 2017 and a high-speed Durst P5 350 HS D4 hybrid press in 2023, which was also the second one in the world. Cactus Imaging also recently invested more than €300,000 in a new MIS system with Durst last year.

In 2019, Cactus Imaging installed Australia’s first Fujifilm Acuity Ultra 5044, one of the first five of its generation in the world.

It also installed its predecessor, the Fujifilm Acuity Ultra, in 2018, also as an Australian first. The Fujifilm Acuity R2 was installed at Cactus Imaging in 2023 – the first of several installations for this technology following its showcase at FESPA Munich that year. In 2020, Cactus Imaging also installed an Australian-first Fotoba trimmer.

“We’re always at the forefront of technology. One of our big benefits – which has been built up over years of trust and working with manufacturers – is our ability to help them help us. We’ve been to beta sites, we’ve tested various equipment, and we’ve always put our toes in the water where new technology is involved,” Ferrel said.

“Because of this trust, we can sometimes gain knowledge of what technologies are in the works from manufacturers, which allows us to forward plan.

“I’m not interested in going to tradeshows and buying what anybody else can buy today because we bought that two years ago. What I’m looking at is the manufacturers’ future inventory because we don’t just want to be competitive; we want to be market leaders.”

A prime example of Cactus Imaging’s market leadership is the development of its environmentally friendly printing option for outdoor advertising billboard skins, where the substrate is not only recycled, but turned back into boards for use again. Led by Nigel Spicer, Cactus Imaging partners with Gale Pacific on these projects.

This idea started taking root in 2019, when Cactus Imaging developed Smart Skins – a world first outdoor advertising banner – in conjunction with oOh!media. Smart Skins allowed the substrate to be turned into high grade polymer products like park benches and bollards when no longer needed.

“We’ve been working on our environmentally friendly printing option for more than 10 years and we’re 98 per cent of the way there. Unless you’re doing things like these, you’re going to be yesterday’s man,” Ferrel said.

Ferrel has no intentions of stopping or retiring, saying he is more focused than ever and wants to pass on his immense knowledge and experience to the industry.

“I love what I do, the people I work with, and this industry. I’d hate to put it in all this work for nothing and hopefully, others can benefit from it. I’m still going at this age because it’s mind over matter for me. Maybe one day I’ll wake up and think I’ve had enough, but until then, I’ve got more than enough enthusiasm to want to be a part of print,” he said.

Having been in the industry for 33 years, Ferrel said the growth of innovation and technological shifts in print has been “mind boggling”.

“In the past, your machines would allow you to print for one segment of the industry. They were also slower and lacked in detail and quality for prints,” Ferrel said.

“Machines today are super-fast, allow us to print on a variety of substrates, are so detailed in their print quality, have short changeover times, and allow us to play in markets we haven’t done before.

“For example, our Durst P5 allows for hapt printing – you can use it to print braille and raised effects and its many other features. We’ve just completed a big job for an artist using the hapt feature, and the prints will go into the New York Art Gallery.”

What’s also happening is the growth of digital billboards – but Ferrel finds it’s not as bad as some make it out to be.

“Digital billboards haven’t impacted anywhere near as much as people think. I don’t deny there is growth in digital outdoor, but that has given recognition to outdoor media. So, while there are fewer static billboards now, the volume of changeouts of static ads have increased, allowing printers to produce more,” Ferrel said.

“One of the advantages of static billboards is it’s availability 24/7. Digital billboards rotate advertising, so each ad is only shown for about 10 seconds at a time,” he said.

“You can drive past your billboard on a freeway five times a day for five days and never see your ad. Also, with static billboards, research shows retention rates are much higher than with digital billboards.”

Social endeavours

Ferrel’s efforts extend beyond the doors of Cactus Imaging. He gives back to industry and society, plays as hard as he works, and makes sure he sets aside time for family.

“I’ve reached a stage in life where I have the experience to give back. If I keep everything to myself, there’s no legacy left. My knowledge is there to spread so hopefully others can be better, or better equipped,” he said.

Within the industry, Ferrel advocates for Women in Print, the FESPA Future Leaders Program, and the ASGA apprenticeships and traineeships programs, to name a few.

He was also a past HP Customer Advisory board member, past board chairman of the Asia Pacific Japan Dscoop board, is currently a board member of the Asia Pacific Japan Dscoop board, and a current board member of FESPA Australia.

Cactus Imaging supports Camp Quality, Cure Our Kids, the Endeavour Foundation, and the Humpty Dumpty Foundation, along with many other charities. Ferrel, who loves his rugby, has also made sure the company backs charities founded by former Wallabies including the George Gregan Foundation and Matt Rogers’ charity, 4 ASD Kids.

A true sports lover, Ferrel also has a soft spot for horse racing – he currently owns far too many racehorses but has been lucky enough to have a Melbourne Cup runner.

“Three of them recently raced at Rosehill, and all three came second. I guess that’s better than nothing,” he said with a chuckle.

The family-focused man also finds himself spending valuable time with his family. “My family is everything to me. I’ve been married for 43 years now, have an amazingly supportive wife, three wonderful daughters and four beautiful grandchildren,” he added.

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