In partnership with a trusted global network of printing partners, Mixam’s intuitive, accessible online platform offers consumers an exciting, innovative online print-on-demand service for books, posters, booklets, leaflets, flyers and much more. By making printing accessible and easy to understand, Mixam is revolutionising the consumer’s professional printing experience. Head of Operations Sara Wimmer took Richard Hagan behind the scenes of Mixam’s operations, showcasing how its new PrintLink service is driving new business for Mixam.
Wh
ere high-quality book printing was once the exclusive purview of publishing houses, modern technology has ushered in a new age of accessibility in the printing industry. Today, Mixam stands at the apex of an industry that brings book, magazine and other printing services directly to consumers in a growing list of countries. Mixam offers consumers a comprehensive online print-on-demand service that allows the customer to easily order their own high-quality printed materials, with no minimum order quantities required.
“We have the technology and the talented people to give our customers the best possible experience, and we are always trying to make the process easier”
A new audience
According to Mixam’s Head of Operations
S ara Wimmer, the company’s online-based business model is attracting a whole new generation of customers to the printing industry: “Since we’re an online platform, our customers can be anyone; however, it’s typically a younger audience as they tend to be more creative.
“We’ve had a surge of content creators and other new clients during and since lockdown. Whether it’s a veteran magazine publisher turning to us for its printing needs, or someone who’s printing for the very first time, we make it as accessible and easy to understand as we can, allowing customers to be as self-sufficient as possible.”
In addition to its standard printing service, Mixam has begun offering a print-ondemand service called PrintLink, allowing creators to print their books and sell them directly to their customers, without storing and mailing the books themselves.
Ms Wimmer noted that the creative market for PrintLink is vast and includes works such as comic books, cookbooks and novels.
“There are no minimum quantities, with orders possible from one unit to 90,000,” said Ms Wimmer. “PrintLink is part of our
ongoing effort to improve our customer experience and become a true onestop shop.”
These efforts are working. In 2023, Mixam shipped 42 million print units to customers in an impressive 50 countries, bringing in $28 million in revenue.
Global expansion
Mixam was founded in 2008 in the UK by Rami Zetuny, a passionate printing industry veteran who wanted to make print accessible to anyone.
Initially, the company offered in-house printing services linked to an online print price calculation tool, allowing customers to get instant printing prices online.
As demand for the company’s services grew, Mixam made substantial investments in its online platform to streamline both the customer experience and Mixam’s project workflows. This led to the creation of its fully cloud-based platform that includes online proofs and quality checks, as well as client feedback and messaging facilities.
These advancements culminated in 2013 with Mixam being officially remodelled as a software and e-commerce platform. Six years later in 2019, Mixam launched its US website, followed by Canadian and Australian websites in 2020. Its next web portal expansion, planned for April 2024, will be in Germany
Mixam is headquartered in Watford in the UK, with a second office in Illinois in the US. Altogether, the company boasts 68 employees worldwide, including a customer service team able to deliver Mixam’s famous white-glove service 24 hours a day across all of its customers’ time zones.
Illustrious print partners
The secret to the success of Mixam’s global scaling is in its partnerships with 26 printing houses strategically located worldwide, close to Mixam’s customers. These printers are responsiblefor fulfilling Mixam’s customers’ orders, producing
printed materials to the highest international standards.
Mixam’s partners utilise Hewlett-Packard printers for smaller digital print runs, and Heidelberg presses for high-volume orders. Mixam enjoys very close relationships with both HP and Heidelberg. The choice of printing hardware is a key contributor in Mixam’s quality controls, as Ms Wimmer explained: “HP printers are known for their vibrant colours and saturation. They can achieve fabulously deep, dark backgrounds too, making them perfect for night photography media, for example. HP printers are therefore ideal for photo-heavy printing.
“The Heidelberg presses, manufactured by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG in Germany, are offset presses ideal for higher-volume orders of 800 copies and more. They are capable of producing thousands of sheets per hour at a consistent quality level.”
Though the majority of equipment used by Mixam is HP and Heidelberg, Mixam constantly explores other print presses that meet the Mixam quality standard.
As technology changes, so will Mixam, to offer the best print quality to its customers. Mixam also works closely with Kodi Collective, benefitting from its broad range of marketing services.
Ms Wimmer highlighted two partners who have been especially instrumental to Mixam’s success:
Charlesworth Press in the UK and Blooming Color in the US.“Charlesworth has been with us since day one, delivering fantastic quality, particularly in hardcover prints,” she revealed. “Blooming Color joined us in 2022 and has been a champion of innovation. Mixam has asked a lot of the company in the two years since, and Blooming Color has never been afraid to rise to the challenge. ”
Sustainability on paper
Mixam allows all of its print partners to choose their own paper and materials; however, all paper and board used in
Mixam print products are required to be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified. This means that the raw materials were obtained from FSCcertified, responsibly managed forests.
Environmental sustainability is a core concern at Mixam, and it does not stop at the raw materials. “All of our partners recycle their paper waste where possible,” said Ms Wimmer. “Just one of our US partners recycled 400 tonnes of paper waste in 2023, while 60 per cent of our print partners use ecofriendly packaging.”
On its US, Canada and UK portals, Mixam customers can choose to use recycled paper for their print projects. This selection will be rolled out to Mixam’s otherterritories soon.
All of Mixam’s printing subcontractors are focused on energy sustainability, with 80% using energy-efficient equipment. All have also either achieved or are in the process of pursuing multiple ISO certifications, including ISO 14001 (environmental management systems), 9001 (quality management systems), and 27001 (information security management systems).
In closing, Ms Wimmer emphasised Mixam’s mission: “We have the technology and the talented people to give our customers the best possible experience, and we are always trying to make the process easier. We look forward to delivering more innovations because that’s how Mixam has always been.”
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