PMA Solutions celebrated its 25th anniversary on 12 September, and it’s been an amazing quarter of a century since we opened in 1988. We started in a small office in Leichhardt, Sydney, with our first order being a box of business cards for the tradesman who connected the electricity. Since then, PMA has grown into a $60 million business, employing more than 160 staff across three countries.
But times have not always been easy.
I joined the print industry in 1974 as a sales rep for Lamson Paragon. During my 14 years there, I saw how print brokers were starting to take hold of the North American market. I recognised there was an opportunity in Australia to be one of the first to set up an independent print management operation.
That prompted me and three of my colleagues to open the doors to Print Management Services, as we were then known, with offices in Leichhardt and the Brisbane suburb of Bowen Hills. The four of us worked together until 2003. It was then that I acquired 100% of PMA and became the majority shareholder.
It was tough. We survived on the savings and borrowings of the four directors. By the end of year two, our money was all gone. We were virtually down to the business covering itself. We would invoice clients for jobs done, and when we got paid, we would pay our suppliers. There were many sleepless nights.
The industry was very different then. Getting orders was the easy part; the hard part was getting suppliers. Not long after we started, we were visited by a trade printer who did a lot of work for the independent print brokers. He just assumed PMA would sign on with them, because apparently we needed them to succeed. He wanted a $5,000 payment for security, which he said was common practice. I marched him out of my office and PMA never used that supplier.
PMA continued to battle through the early days of Paul Keating’s ‘recession we had to have’. Interest rates were rising and we faced the challenge of cracking that first large account with limited case studies.
Tenacity is what got us through. It was a matter of sink or swim. A breakthrough came in 1993, when we signed our first major print management account with HSBC, who remained a client for over 10 years. The introduction took place through a personal contact referral into HSBC’s administration area. At the time we were celebrating our move to new premises in Rozelle and we invited the stakeholders at HSBC to celebrate with us. We announced the new partnership at the function in front of a lot of prospective clients, and that got the ball rolling. The HSBC account grew to be worth over $3 million per year.
From then on, the sky was the limit. PMA started working with accounts like Bullivants, Techtronics and Freedom Furniture as well as the Australian Labor Party. Within years, we were working with larger companies like Case New Holland, BBC Hardware, ING and Cancer Council.
Thanks to our suppliers
PMA was, and continues to be, well supported by a range of loyal suppliers. Lamson Paragon and Trenear Printing were with us in the early days and remain loyal suppliers today.
The company’s growth led to a number of office moves. The Sydney office moved to a larger site in Silverwater and then to our first purpose-built and owned facility at Norwest in 1999. We continued to grow in Brisbane and opened in Melbourne.
Norwest remained our head office for 12 years, but the warehouse’s 4,500-pallet capacity turned out to be insufficient. So we leased extra warehouses in Girraween and Greystanes, before consolidating our Sydney operations at a new facility in Erskine Park. This state-of-the-art facility can warehouse over 25,000 pallets of stock.
A large part of the reason was our diverse offering, which includes print, promotional procurement, storage, distribution, fulfilment, mailing and, most recently, safety equipment and workwear. This diversification was always led by clients. We printed for them – could we design for them, too? We managed their branded print – could we also manage their branded merchandise? We sourced their materials – what about warehousing and distributing them?
We also expanded overseas. In 2008, PMA opened its offices in Penang, Malaysia. The timing was perfect. As the GFC began to impact and companies in Australia cut costs, PMA was able to expand in Penang. We chose the locationas our director of IT & operations, Brett Raymont, had attended boarding school in Penang and had a good understanding of the culture.
Just like in the early days in Australia, it wasn’t easy. It took a lot of hard work to understand the different environment and to build rapport with the locals who would become our staff and suppliers. The first three weeks of operations were managed out of Brett’s hire car! He would pick up the first PMA Malaysia staff member, and they would visit banks, builders, accountants, government offices and the furniture suppliers who were outfitting the office. Every week, he would go to an ATM and withdraw money from his account to pay the staff. It was a pretty big leap of faith for the staff to stick around, but they did. Malaysia now employs a team of 21 staff in IT, graphic design, administration and finance.
In 2011, we expanded into New Zealand through the purchase of Trio, giving us the ability to manage clients on both sides of the Tasman. Trio was a seamless choice. I’d already worked with the company’s founder, Don Brodie, so I knew we shared the same business philosophies. It has been a great success.
As PMA has grown, so have our staff. We’re proud of our low turnover, with 60.5% of the current staff having been with us for more than three years, 48% for more than five years and 19.2% for more than 10 years. Three have been with us for over 20 years: Queensland state manager Elaine Kemp, senior account manager Stephen Gianniotis and PMA Safety Solutions national manager Andrew Hickey. The average tenure is 5.84 years.
Our retention rate is due to a culture that encourages the growth of individuals as well as teams. This can be seen in our management team, which has staff who started in warehouse or junior sales positions and then enjoyed a range of roles in PMA’s warehouse, customer service and sales divisions before joining management.
The key to success is to enjoy your work. We have a good time while working hard. We let our hair down every year at our Christmas party, with staff being flown in from other offices to join the themed dress-up event. It’s always well-attended – and I have to admit that I’ve claimed the prize for best arrival several times, including the year I arrived on a camel dressed as Lawrence of Arabia.
We celebrated our 25th anniversary by holding a Sydney Harbour cruise for staff from all offices – local and abroad – who had been at PMA for at least five years. It was an opportunity to thank them. Successful businesses appreciate and reward their employees. Our staff have built this company into what it is today, and I am proud of all their achievements.
I can see PMA’s next growth phase will come through software. We have a powerful team of 12 IT professionals who are continually improving both our front- and back-end systems, making it easier for our clients to do business with us.
As for me, I don’t plan on retiring any time soon. We are in the process of setting up in South America, which is perfect timing due to both the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics.
Phil Okill is the managing director of PMA Solutions
Factfile: 1988
Bob Hawke was Prime Minister
Australian bicentenary was celebrated
Mats Wilander won the Australian Open
NSW Rugby League included two Queensland teams
Population was 16,532,000
Rain Man won the Oscar for Best Film
Table tennis became an Olympic sport
Lockerbie Scotland bombing killed 270 people
Life expectancy was 79.68 years
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