“Although there are plenty of successful and profitable printers out there, the market is the weakest I’ve seen it in the almost eight years I’ve been in Australia, and for obvious reasons. I don’t know of too many industries or businesses that are not affected one way or another by the current economic turmoil,” Vels Jensen told ProPrint.
“Printers are facing increasing costs in consumables and labour. Paper is about to be knocked up another notch, clients have to finance at rates that are 30 to 50% higher than their last investment, the Australian dollar has dropped dramatically against most major currencies and, according to industry statistics, printers have not raised their prices for many years. It makes for a tight CAPEX environment and although industry conditions won’t get better for some time yet, many printers believe now is the best time to invest.”
On questions about rumoured staff reductions, Vels Jensen commented, “Over the past month we have implemented some fairly basic and prudent cost savings related to buildings and other areas, including a review of our market approach. The market has consolidated over the years and this has allowed us to reduce staff by five people. Given the current volatility in the economy and industry, we have also decided to delay filling non-critical vacancies in areas where it has no impact on the services we provide our customer base. Overall we are talking 17 positions.
“Having said that, in my last quarterly meeting with staff I could announce the names of 15 new employees, many of whom started in new roles and areas where our business is growing and our customers require increased support and service.”
“Have we had better years? Without a shadow of a doubt. I miss our three record years from 2005 to 2007. However, we have so far not seen any reason to implement a restructure or major downsizing of the business in ANZ as we have and are still enjoying the business generated through installing more than 2200 printing units following our restructure in 2001.”
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