Lindsay Yates makes a new impression

Taking the economic downturn by the neck and sticking to its long-held plans, the Lindsay Yates Group recently held a launch of its new public image, along with a renewed vigour for tapping into new and diversified markets.

With a launch party held in the Sydney CBD recently for designers, agencies and other clients, the company made it clear that it had undergone a major revamp of its print capabilities, but perhaps more importantly, its business processes and marketing strategy.

Eighteen months in the making, the makeover showed that the company had reengineered itself to diversify its print offerings, as well as other services to take it into the next decade and beyond. And the timing couldn’t have been better, the directors agreed.

“I think it’s perfect timing now,” said sales director Craig Loughran (pictured, centre right). “This will have more effect now than it would have if it had been put out about 18 months ago when we first talked about it. Whether the effect is more or new business, or if it is to promote our industry, I think this is more than just a promotion for Lindsay Yates, it’s a promotion for our whole industry. This is saying we all want to stand up and be more aggressive and do something about our businesses.”

While the accompanying literature with the launch was eye-catching in both design and production, Loughran insists that the launch is about more than image.

“That launch gave us good publicity and a good response from clients. We’ve received about 40 emails saying what a great success the other night was. This was a part of it, but the next 12 months is a big part of it too.

“We have FSC accreditation and we hope to get PEFC in a couple of weeks. It’s a whole chain of custody thing. We’ve had to change all our internal processes around purchasing our paper.

“That’s just part of our change in business practices. We were lucky enough to receive a government grant last year for training. We’re nine months into a two-year programme in training. That’s about lean manufacturing, about how you process more with less, and about due diligence disciplines. It’s very interesting. It’s been a big learning curve for us, but we’re now starting to get to the top of it. There’s certainly a lot happening here,” he said enthusiastically.

“All of this is about moving up. We have to make the jump from a medium size company to a large company. The move from Lindsay Yates and Partners to the Lindsay Yates Group gives our message that we are not just a printing company, we’re a communications company. We have print, offset and digital, data, mail, logistics, and more. While we used to be mostly just design and advertising, now we want to say we also do total print management. We can manage all your products out of here and right around the country. That’s something we’ve been working on for two years, and we’ve got all the tools now.”

Director David Shoppee (pictured, far right) added, “The market is not going to disappear. It’s going to change but not disappear. The key is to remain relevant to the marketplace.”

The company has always had a determination to invest in new technology, such as the recent purchase of a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL105 press, but director Paul Richardson (pictured, centre left) insists that technology is just one part of a broader vision for business growth. The company has always been a quiet achiever in the Sydney market, but that is to change, according to Richardson.

“We’ve always been pretty quiet about what we do, but now we’ll be more visible and prepared to show how we can provide a complete service to our customers,” he said.

In a downturn it’s a message that other print business should heed.

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