This article first appeared in the September issue of Australian Printer

The Queensland-based Greenridge Group is a collection of commercial printing companies, specialising in a wide variety of promotional and business printing services. As a group, its capabilities include all aspects of print, communication, creative design, signage and display, wide format print and distribution.

Consisting of Greenridge Press and Cranbrook Press (in Toowoomba), Westminster Print and UltraPrint (in Brisbane) and Creed and Lang Printers (in Warwick), the group traditionally produces a large calendar of 12 pages and cover each year to hand out freely to all its customers. 

With a run of around 2000 calendars for distribution, the group has typically focused on reproducing scenic pictures for each month in the calendars it created in the past. These pictures were taken by the group’s staff members.

However, the company decided on creating something different at the end of last year.

Greenridge Group general manager Kyal Osborne said he wanted to showcase the various ways to enhance printed pieces for customers. 

“We partnered with Vivid Print Finishing in Brisbane to produce a series of pictures that were enhanced in various ways by the application of spot UV, with finishes in various thickness and textures,” he said.

“We wanted to create tactile effects where the images could be felt by touch. The idea was to get our customers thinking about the effects that are possible to create. All the artwork was done in-house by our own graphic designers.”

This job was produced on the Greenridge Group’s RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press that it purchased from Cyber in November 2020.

“This is our newest machine, and the job was treated with the same respect our operators give to each job they do. We have had this machine for 18 months and it complemented this job as we could run it four-up,” Osborne said.

“The 920 is our main workhorse and it does the lion’s share of our colour production. It’s a versatile press and we’ve used it to print on a variety of substrates. So, we knew this would be the best press for this project.”

Apart from the RMGT 920 used to print the calendar, a few other machines were used by Vivid Print Finishing to put the final touches on the product.

But no project is without its challenges, with Osborne saying that timing was against the team.

“Towards the end of last year, we were incredibly busy as we had a record month in December and this calendar production was time consuming. When a company is busy, who has time to produce your own promotional material? It always has to be meeting customer needs first,” he said.

“While the printing was quick, the finishing required on every page was time consuming, and they then had to be spiral bound with a central hanger. These processes are also costly and we were under pressure to get them out on time. In fact, most of our calendars were hand-delivered by our sales team to their customers prior to Christmas.”

But the result was everything the Greenridge Group could have hoped for.

“The print quality was excellent as expected, and the finishing was superb. The tactile effect created on various images was strong and really showcased what can be done with print. If anyone is keen to see the various effects we managed to create, reach out to us,” Osborne said.

He also mentioned that the win, along with its other silver and bronze wins at the 2022 National Print Awards, enhances the business’ reputation with its existing customers and gives it a new opportunity to push its credentials when dealing with new clients. 

“It enables future customers to trust us on our results and reputation so that transferring their work to us may just that little bit easier,” Osborne said.

“We are also promoting this win locally through various business groups that we are a part of including the local Chamber of Commerce as well as informing all our individual customers. We are and have been a family company and winning these awards goes to show the quality of our work and is part of the celebration of us being in business for 30 years this year.”

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