Rising Blue Star

As 2015 draws to a close, I am reminded of just how big a year it has been for our industry. Print has continued to thrive and looks set for continued success for those who continue to invest with a close eye on what lies ahead.

Over the past three years under new ownership, we have invested more than $35m in new channels, operations, technologies and people to meet the ongoing needs of our operating divisions, address the changing demand of our customer base and product portfolio, and of course to take advantage of future opportunities.

To better reflect these changes in our business, showcase the diversity of our operations and align our position to the market, we undertook a rebrand in April. Blue Star now sits within the IVE Group structure – an integrated marketing communications company – along with IVE’s other business units Kalido, IVEO and Pareto.

In the first six months of 2015 Blue Star acquired a range of businesses – Thompsons POS and The POS collective to build on our Blue Star Display offering, Oxygen which was integrated into Blue Star Print in Silverwater, and Vavavoom (now known as Blue Star Promote) as our first move into the merchandise and promotional marketing space, which is closely aligned to our diverse offering. Blue Star Promote is now co-located with our POS and retail display business Blue Star Display at our new, modern premises in South Granville, Sydney.

In our print businesses we have undertaken a number of significant capital investments across the Group. Blue Star Web (previously known as Webstar), our heatset web printing division, will be the first commercial printer in Australia to install a Heidelberg ten-colour Low Energy UV press (this month). The capability of the press exceeds anything available in the industry today with a wide variety of coating embellishments that will add to the extensive offer Blue Star Web already provides its customers. Blue Star Web has also recently installed the latest automated palletising technology off its high speed Ferag Unidrum stitching line and Kolbus Perfect Binder. This significant investment is again the first of its kind in Australia.

Additionally, Blue Star Web has recently undertaken an extensive audit of energy use. We are introducing technologies – Power Factor Correction (PFC) and Automatic Voltage Optimisation (AVO) – to provide energy saving solutions, mitigate the risk of outages and reduce energy consumption significantly.

Blue Star Print in Victoria has also made several investments over the last 12 months. Earlier this year we installed a new Kodak Magnus Q800 platesetter and a second Heidelberg XL105 ten-colour press which provides quicker make ready times and faster running speeds, increasing our capacity, reducing waste and allowing for greater flexibility. This business has also expanded its product and service offering with the purchase of a HP 3000 Latex wide format printing device and a Fotoba XLD cutter.

These investments complement the existing service offering in NSW from Blue Star Display, and have given the team in-house capacity to deliver posters, outdoor signage, window banners, decals, backlights/dura trans, self-adhesive, fabric and vinyl products with quicker speed to market.

In May Blue Star relocated the Victorian operations of its Connect business (warehousing, kitting and fulfilment) from Clayton to a brand new 7,000sqm facility in Keysborough. Moving from three warehouse sites into one has enabled the team to realise significant efficiencies and provide a higher level of service to clients. It also provides additional room for growth whilst freeing up much needed space at our Clayton site for the Print and Direct businesses.

One of our biggest growth strategies in the last 12 months has been in our Blue Star Display business. This has been through a combination of acquisition, an established off-shore supply chain (managed by six staff in China), strong organic growth from a group of talented and committed staff and complementary capital investment to grow the capability and value proposition for this business.

In the last two months we have relocated our Display business to a new site in South Granville – a state-of-the-art 16,000sqm facility that will house unmatched capabilities in the large sheetfed offset, screen printing and wide format digital space. It also provides an improved working environment for all staff and ensures the business can continue to execute its strategy as we move into 2016. Key to this relocation was also the ongoing investment into digital production technologies, with Blue Star being the first company in Australia to install two high speed Vutek HS100 wide format digital devices (which complements the HP FB11000 and Latex 3000 the business already has). The wide format digital side of the business now has even greater flexibility and speed to market to meet the ever evolving needs and demands of a dynamic customer base.

Ultimately, the print industry is about people – not just technology. At Blue Star we feel privileged to have some of the best talent in the industry. In the last 12 months we have appointed four new general managers, all coming from within the business.

Darryl Meyer progressed from operations manager to general manager of Blue Star Web, Guy Watson progressed from a group sales role to general manager of Blue Star Display, James Roth progressed from a senior sales leader role to general manager of Blue Star Direct (previously known as Blue Star DM) in Victoria, and very recently Simon Bailey progressed from head of operations to general manager Print NSW following the promotion of Hugh Chisholm to the new role of group general manager Print and Direct (taking responsibility for all of Blue Star’s digital, sheetfed and personalised communications businesses).

Investing in young talent is critical. Blue Star Web’s supply chain and pre-production manager Sean Thompson was recently awarded the 2015 Media Super Young Executive Award, which recognises young talent making waves at a senior level. Sean began his career in the printing industry in 2006 as a general hand in the pressroom and quickly worked his way through the business to be a future leader in our business. Jake Sundstrom, in Blue Star Print NSW was also nominated as a finalist in the NSW Apprentice of the Year category for the 32nd National Print Awards.

So, what can the industry expect for the year ahead? I believe the power of print as a high ROI option will continue to shine through over the coming year, with ongoing high demand for print as part of an integrated solution which complements digital communication channels.

Retaining and acquiring the best talent, developing the great people already in our teams, and attracting new and bright people to the industry will become more important than ever. Investing in technology to ensure efficiency and meet changing customer demand and requirements will continue to be an important focus, and will certainly be part of Blue Star’s agenda for the next 12 months – as will ongoing acquisition activity aligned with our broader strategy. Overall a focus on the future is crucial. It goes without saying that those anticipating future changes and developments will be best placed for the next year and of course for the years ahead.