Stepping inside Brisbane’s InHouse Print & Design, one instantly feels a sense of warmth and comfort, as if you are walking into a family home rather than a print business. A brightly painted reception area decorated with ornaments and crystals is a charming contrast to the bustling, noisy print factory it shares a wall with.
Walking around the business, you are met with welcoming nods and smiles by the staff who are constantly buzzing around. It is not surprising to learn that the InHouse business started off as a labour of love underneath the family home of its owners, Bob and Di Karlsson.
Bob started his print career in 1965 working as an apprentice and went on to work his way up other companies before deciding to start a family business in 1999 with his wife Di. Bob recalls fond memories of working from underneath the house while listening to the raucous noises and splashes from his grandchildren playing in their backyard pool.
Back in those days, InHouse was your basic printer with its main work in business cards, tax invoice books and flyers. Di still remembers making each tax invoice book by hand and using an old manual guillotine with a lever you would have to pull down to slice the paper sheets.
Bob says, “The business became successful because of the tax invoice books, and what people really loved about them was that we printed them using bubble jet printers, which meant we could print with colour at no extra cost, back in those days you could not do that printing conventionally.”
Their daughter Chrisstie Matthews had an interest in graphic arts and one day brought home a thick design book which she began studying. She eventually joined the business as a graphic designer, which saw the business branch out into this line of work. Today InHouse has three separate businesses – Print & Design, Publishing and Signs, each operating independently.
Over the years different family members have floated in and out of the business and they have moved out from underneath the family home to bigger premises in Underwood. InHouse is currently managed by Bob and Di’s 19 year old grandson Nevada Matthews, who joined the business straight after finishing high school.
Five years ago InHouse brought in Nevada’s uncle Guy Kirk, who despite having no experience when he first started, now runs the Sign business. Two years ago Ocean Reeve joined the team as publishing manager, bringing total staff to 15.
Bob says the business does not have a sales person and rarely advertises, so the majority of their clients hear about them through word of mouth. “A personal touch is how we differentiate ourselves from other print businesses. We actually do care about what the customer wants, every business has to make money but it is not about the money for us, it is about the service and that generates the income and security with clients,” he says.
Di adds, “I don’t like to blow my own trumpet, but it is very important to me that we always do the right thing by people, it is just what we are like. I would rather be on the losing end of something financially than to have an upset customer, so I guess that is how we operate our business.
“We go to a lot of trouble for our customers. People send orders through at three o’clock in the afternoon that actually need changes and want to pick them up by five o’clock, which we deliver. So that is how we run our business, we do crazy things like that.”
The business tries to go the extra mile for customers by offering a personalised service. When a customer calls up, they will usually speak with the person who runs the machinery or provides the graphic art. Bob says each staff member works to their own individual knowledge base and can communicate with the customer to ensure they receive the best solution.
Even if a customer has a particular request that the team has no experience with, they will always have a crack at delivering the product required. Nevada says, “I just sit there for a minute and think, ‘okay how are we going to do this?’. With all the machines we have there is always some sort of solution to get things done.”
InHouse’s hands on approach to service particularly applies to its book publishing business. Ocean explains that book publishing work involves more emotional investment for the customer than quick print jobs.
Some of InHouse’s publishing customers spend more than 20 years writing a book before bringing it to them. And not only does Ocean provide a perfect bound book for the customer, but he also offers services in manuscript appraisals, editing, book layout, distribution, eBooks and marketing.
The business has operated a distribution arm since 2015 and has relationships with local library suppliers, public libraries and independent book stores.
This removes the need for authors to sign a contract with a publishing house in order to get their work published.
Ocean says he gets satisfaction from giving the client exactly what they envisage for their book.
He can still recall his feeling of elation after watching one customer standing in the business’s carpark for several minutes, staring at the book they had just finished for him.
He says, “I knew why he was standing there looking at it and it was just really nice to see. I think the place we come from in publishing these authors’ books is the most authentic, it is not driven purely by the sale of the book. We probably remember the authors name rather than the title of their book so it’s a more relationship based publishing process.”
Di says the business always strives to put the customer first, which is why if someone comes in requiring print work for a funeral of a relative or friend, whether they are a regular customer or a stranger, they will always do the work for free. Nevada admits he will often down sell to a customer by making them aware of cheaper alternatives for the work they require. He says a policy of honesty usually brings in repeat business anyway.
Di adds, “We are not Clive Palmer, we do not take everything out of our business, we focus on growing it. It is more important to get the emails we get from grateful, appreciative customers than it is to have the vintage cars and the luxury items.”
But whether you agree with their business strategy or not, the proof is in the pudding. Last year the business recorded a 40 per cent jump in sales, attributed to growth in wide-format and perfect bound books. According to Bob, InHouse has experienced growth between 10 and 30 per cent every year since they first started.
Equipment, in addition to superior customer service also plays a role in the business’s success says Nevada, “We can be the nicest people in the world, but if we get a massive job and we do not have the right machines, we cannot deliver the work. We always say ‘maybe we will not buy another machine for a while’ but then the next week we will end up getting something new.”
After unprecedented sales growth last year, they decided to invest the money back into the business by purchasing Australia’s first Ricoh Pro C9110 digital printer, on the first night of PrintEx, along with a Pro C7110 digital production printer.
This was in addition to its existing fleet of Ricoh digital production printers, Horizon binders and saddle stitching machines. InHouse’s Sign business is also kitted out with a Roland VS-640 Print & Cut Solvent roll to roll, a Flora PP3220UV 2m x 3.22m Flatbed and a Colex Sharpcut Flat Bed Router Cutter.
InHouse also understands the importance of investing in quality staff. The phrase, ‘keeping it in the family’ not only applies to InHouse’s roots as a family run business, but also the way it treats all staff members, whether related or not, as an adopted family.
Bob says, “Everyone here is really passionate and that is the difference between this business and a lot of the other businesses I have worked with over the years. The people here actually believe in what they do and get satisfaction each day when they come to work.
“A lot of people say this, but we do actually care about each other. We have had staff that haven’t really fitted well with the business and have left. But to replace them we have sourced people that actually care about what they do.”
InHouse has certainly come a long way from printing tax invoice books. Now its main business is in producing campaign material like corflute signage for political parties and perfect bound books for some very notable authors. And over the next few years the business has big plans for growth and investment. Di says a move to even bigger premises is on the cards.
But despite their successes, the team at InHouse say they have stayed humble and true to their original business principle.
“Right from the start we were more concerned with looking after people than becoming millionaires,” Di says. “Our business has always been people first and that’s how it still is. As it got bigger, it was important that we kept that kind of ethical standard and I think we have managed to.”
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