In his Australia Day Message in January 2010, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: “It is not about people working longer hours or people working harder… it’s about people working smarter, using the most up-to-date technology.”

This certainly describes the approach taken by Wayne Sidwell, the driving force behind Melbourne-based Wellcom Group. Walking through the Melbourne headquarters of the Wellcom, it’s obvious that Sidwell goes the extra mile to ensure his organisation is kitted out with the most sophisticated, up-do-date technological tools.

Sidwell’s experience dates back to the mid-20th century’s Show Ads organisation. The company was established by two Sidwell Seniors: Wayne Sidwell’s Uncle Bill and his father, Jack, who he followed into the business. Show Ads continued in later life under the PMP banner.

In its early days, the company provided engravings for doctors’ surgeries, graduating to photo engravings for newspapers and retailers. Sidwell recalls with some pride how that business grew into a traditional pre-press house, which was employing more than 850 staff by the early 1990s.

Its 1993 float pushed the company into the digital domain and web printing.

Family loyalties had driven Sidwell to stay put following the PMP takeover. But the lure of independence triggered the founding of the fledgling Wellcom venture with a mere handful of people. This year, Wellcom celebrates its 10th anniversary as a multi-pronged listed enterprise. It boasts a workforce of more than 400 specialists. Last year’s turnover exceeded $78m.

Its galaxy of blue-chip clients includes corporate giants Woolworths, Ford Motor Company, ANZ Bank, Australia Post and Pacific Brands.

The company maintains 30 hubs within its clients’ premises where it manages such wide-ranging services as pre-press, studios, catalogue compilation and photography.

Through its joint venture with Australia Post, iPrint, Wellcom manages AP’s total printing requirements in addition to the front-end requirements and stamp production.

The management process of these “hubs” is relatively straightforward. Each has a general manager responsible for its operation. Managers graduate from smaller sites with perhaps two to three employees to bigger locations and come through the organisation’s management ranks in that way.

“They are in effect self-contained profit centres,” says Sidwell, adding that he has always adopted a management process throughout the company’s expansionary phases of training its own people.

“While, of course, we pick up very good people through acquisitions [it has taken over no less than eight businesses in the past nine years], our training programs are very much hands-on affairs. We bring people through the various departments, six months at a time and then slot them where they are best suited.

“We use our own staff trainers rather than outside personnel because we need to ensure that staff are not only operationally trained but also given a thorough grounding in the company culture.”

Much of the Wellcom operational platform is based on a strategy developed by Sidwell entitled ‘Knowledgewell’, which he describes as a proprietary content management technology.

Digital guard book
“Its conception began with the question how to facilitate a sophisticated digital asset management system that our clients are enabled to use to give them easy and fast access to their images and their jobs online,” he explains.

To this end Wellcom developed a module it calls a digital guard book for instantaneous high-speed online communications for these assets.

“Then from there we thought we needed a fast online approvals system as the second part of the system; the third part came about by the need for retailer franchisees to build their own advertisements from a series on online templates,” he says.

“It’s all very robust, very speedy and all on one platform,” he adds. Sidwell recalls the days when “people walked around with photostats in their hands, all with different corrections – it was a
real mess. Now it’s all online, all streamlined, trackable, traceable and reportable,” says Sidwell.

This and much more of Wellcom’s methodologies are the products of its internal developers. It’s all very much client-driven, he maintains, who… is resistant to outsourced development. Controlling it internally makes for greater flexibility, he insists.

Asian expansion
When ProPrint met with Sidwell, he had just returned from Singapore where Wellcom had just established its second offshore undertaking, a retail hub conjointly with Courts, the island republic’s major retailer.

Prior to this, Wellcom had acquired a UK print facility, Keenes Repro Ltd that – despite the haemorrhaging UK economic downturn – has managed to hold its end up satisfactorily, says Sidwell. However, the real expansionary effort, he stresses, will be in the Asian region, with future sights firmly set on Malaysia, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

To heed the vision of the Wellcom managing director, that future is not merely geographically oriented. He is adamant that in today’s commercial and technological environment, no company can stand still. As a result, he is crystal-ball gazing the need of the marketplace for analytics involving online marketing analysis, where companies move their products, how they establish their margins, where they position their products on supermarket shelves and what past performance data needs to be considered.

“This is all information buyers want when they come to promote a particular product,” he claims, pointing out that again, its need is very much client-driven. It underlines Sidwell’s firm management conviction that “don’t tell your clients what they want, ask them what they want”.

Sidwell has built up a comprehensive organisation with technological leadership. He has reinforced it with a team of committed and encouraged specialists who enjoy what they do. There’s little doubt the future of Wellcom Group holds an even more comprehensive portfolio of services than it now provides.

Comment below to have your say on this story.

If you have a news story or tip-off, get in touch at editorial@sprinter.com.au.  

Sign up to the Sprinter newsletter