The company has added to its plants in the US, UK and France with a local 2,800sqm facility in the suburb of Scoresby.
The plant is headed up by operations director Paul Glasgow, who joined the company seven months ago, having previously held roles at Print Media Group and Direct Mail & Marketing.
It brings to fruition Lightning Source’s long-held plans to enter the Australian market and offer a local service to its client base of global publishers. It has had a long-term relationship with Amazon.com, which recently bought out rival Book Depository.
“Most of the publishers we work with are existing accounts with the UK and US, so before we even got here, we were encouraged by these publishers and distributors to open up a shop in Australia,” said Glasgow.
“Previously they were exporting and importing from the US and UK. They have been waiting and waiting.”
Lightning Source was established more than a decade ago in the US, when on-demand book printing was still in its infancy.
Today, the company will face stiff competition from the likes of Griffin Press, which has ordered an HP T350 inkjet web to boost its digital capacity, which already comprises a Fuji Xerox ‘Book Factory’ set-up, driven by a Nuvera 288 digital press. Another rival is SOS Print & Media, which produces short-run digital on its fleet, which includes Kodak Digimasters, Océ 6250s, a Ricoh C900 and the only Kodak Prosper 1000 in the country.
Glasgow said Lightning Source would carve out its niche as “the only true print-on-demand supplier that is paired with a distribution channel”.
“Other printers just specialise in short-run printing. Of the millions of books we print each month globally, our average print run is 1.8 units.
“We do short runs as well, but the business model is ‘one book one order’,” he added.
The Scoresby plant currently has 10 staff, with plans to ramp up operations and “grow very quickly”, said Glasgow.
There has been much debate in the book world about work going to low-cost suppliers in Asia, but Glasgow said the Melbourne facility would turn this on its head, producing books for offshore clients.
“We will be servicing the Asia Pacific region from our Australia facility.”
Lightning Source has a digital library of over 6 million books and we have printed and delivered more than 116 million books on behalf of publishers around the world.
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