Southern Colour rebrands to Southern Impact

Three of Australia’s leading print companies have rebranded as Southern Impact following their merger in March this year.

The company, comprising of Southern Colour, Impact Digital and Intelligent Media, has been launched a year after its acquisition of Rooster IMC, which Southern Impact managing director Rod Dawson said was the beginning of the companies coming together and relocating.

“Together, we’re the new name in print. Take the depth of traditional offset printing of Southern Colour, add the rapid, digital print solutions of Impact Digital with the personalised printing services of Intelligent Media,” he said.

“Combine these with tailored software solutions and our wide-reaching distribution, warehousing, kitting and logistics services, and together, we form Southern Impact, a one-stop print business.”

Onpack, which services the labels and packaging sector, will be the only arm of the business that retains its business name and will continue to operate as a separate entity, headed by Michael Nankervis.

Dawson told Sprinter that even though the commercial print businesses were under common shareholding, they were initially trading as separate entities due to their geographical locations, thus resulting in the need for better alignment.

“Impact Digital was headquartered in Brunswick in Victoria, as was Onpack, across two different sites. Southern Colour and Intelligent Media were in two different sites in Keysborough, Victoria. So, we ended up taking over the lease of our new premises in Mount Waverley – this is a much bigger site that can essentially house us under one roof, formerly held by Rooster IMC and The Bindery,” Dawson said.

Southern Impact’s new business logo

As part of this rebranding, Southern Colour, Impact Digital, Intelligent Media and Onpack have all now been relocated to 181 and 195 Forster Road, Mount Waverley. Southern Impact has done a complete overhaul and fit out of its premises, providing the business with a better, more efficient facility.

However, streamlining the businesses, together with the effects of COVID-19, meant that the business needed to tighten down on staff numbers.

“We had close to 100 per cent of people relocating with us. But since we started to gain efficiencies within the business, coupled with the effects of COVID-19, we’ve had to make some changes to our structure and staff numbers,” he said.

“But we’re confident that we’ve completed that process and we’re now at the right size and shape to take us forward in our next chapter.”

Southern Impact has also taken steps to bring its commercial businesses under one operating system. It has created a singular customer base for its commercial business and is now running digital, wide format, mailing and offset from one MIS.

“We’ve done a lot of work on our reporting system so we can track each of the divisions’ performance – in offset, digital, wide format, and inventory management – separately,” Dawson said.

Due to increased demands, it has also expanded its warehouse footprint to support more complex fulfillment projects, and has entered into wide format manufacturing with the purchase of a Mimaki flatbed printer and three Mimaki roll devices, as well as the acquisition of some pieces of equipment after its Rooster IMC takeover.

“We had been outsourcing a lot of our wide format requirements for a number of years. We decided that once we moved, we would have the footprint to enter the wide format manufacturing space and bring this service in house. So far, we’ve been able to facilitate our existing customer base and also attract some new customers,” Dawson said.

Dawson added that the transition to Southern Impact was “an amazing 12-month period”, which resulted in a number of changes for the company including an expansion of its offerings.

“Southern Impact is a strong brand mark that demonstrates our commitment to be a supplier of choice for many years to come. To be able to rebrand as a collective has been such a positive experience for our team. We believe it clearly communicates our strategy that together we can deliver great outcomes for our customers,” Dawson said.

“We have achieved all of this throughout a pandemic that has shown significant impacts across some of our customers and in turn, our business. But our staff have been exceptional throughout 2020, understanding the need for flexibility through the periods of restrictions.

“In a year of uncertainty, we are looking forward to our new chapter with a fantastic can-do team; three great businesses, now under one roof.”

 

 

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