Australian Printer November 2020

NOVEMBER 2020

LEADING THE INDUSTRY FOR 70 YEARS IN PRINT | SPRINTER.COM.AU

RMGT 920PF-8P A1-Size 8-Colour Offset Press with LED-UV and Perfecting Device

Rediscovering the joy of printing The Greenridge Group buys an RMGT press

Part of a seismic change: Landa’s Asher Levy

Enhancing print for engagement: HP

7 over 70 - The veterans of Australian print

REASONS WHY HERO SHOULD BE YOUR TRADE PRINTER

AUSTRALIA’S BEST TRADE PRINTER

HUV PRINTING Hero Print is home to Australia’s only 10 colour HUV press.

This means we are able to print CMYK + Spot Colour or CMYK + Varnish on the instant dry B1 press.

6 iMAGS If you print an offset printed magazine or booklet with Hero Print, we send you an online version free of charge.

We are also able to link different pages to specific URLs - perfect for product catalogues.

2 FAST TURNAROUND We are super fast at what we do, and track the turnaround times on every product we offer to make sure you are getting your job on time, every time.

7 DAZZLING SPECIALTY FINISHES Make your job stand out with our specialty finishes.

Hot stamped silver or gold foil, plus 6 different raised foil colours available.

These foils plus Spot UV and Raised UV can be done on small digital qtys to give any job a lift!

3 HIGH QUALITY Even though we are quick, that is not at the expense of quality. Hero Print prides itself on making sure your job leaves our factory in perfect condition.

8 BLANK PACKAGING

Let us take a back seat while you take all the credit - everything that leaves our factory goes in blank boxes, and is shrink wrapped - ensuring you can send direct to your client with no fuss.

4 AUSTRALIA WIDE

With presses in four States, we are able to service the whole of Australia as quickly as possible.

9 CONSISTENT COLOURS Stringent monthly calibrations on all print output devices allow us to get consistent colours each time you order - whether it be 50 digital brochures or 5,000 books.

5 EASY TO USE WEBSITE We are constantly getting compliments on how easy our website is to use - it makes sense - we want the ordering process to be as streamlined as possible.

10 DEDICATED ACCOUNT MANAGERS Speak to the same person each time.

Tired of talking to a different person each time you pick up the phone? Hero Print assigns a dedicated account manager to you when you first sign up - easy.

CONTENTS

16-18

November 2020 6-14

NEWS: AUSTRALIAN PRINTER’S COMPREHENSIVE INDUSTRY NEWS

16-18

GREENRIDGE CONTINUES CYBER RELATIONSHIP: THE GREENRIDGE GROUP BUYS AN RMGT 920 PF EIGHT-COLOUR LED UV PRESS FROM CYBER

20-21

PEOPLE IN PRINT: LANDA DIGITAL PRINTING ACTIVE CHAIRMAN ASHER LEVY

22

WOMEN IN PRINT: SUSAN HEANEY

24-25

FEATURE: HP ADDRESSES THE NEED TO ENHANCE PRINT FOR ENGAGEMENT

26

LABELS: NEKKORB GETS BEHIND THE GRAPHICS INDUSTRY

28

SOFTWARE: PLATYPUS PRINT INSTALLS KODAK PRINERGY WORKFLOW SYSTEM

30-36

ALL THINGS PREPRESS: THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AROUND PREPRESS TECHNOLOGY  30 KODAK  31 SCREEN  32 AGFA  33 HEIDELBERG  34 SOLIMAR SYSTEMS

20

THE GREENRIDGE GROUP INVESTS IN A NEW RMGT LED UV PRESS FROM CYBER

Advertiser’s Index

PEOPLE IN PRINT: ASHER LEVY

 35  36

22

WOMEN IN PRINT: SUSAN HEANEY

CHERRI INTERNATIONAL CMYKHUB

37-46

7 OVER 70: AUSTRALIAN VETERANS OF PRINT  38 NEIL MULVENEY  40 RICHARD DOWNIE  41 ROBERT MCMILLAN  42 ARTHUR FROST  43 TERRY MULCAHY  44 NEIL MACKAY  46 KEITH FERREL

47

DAVE FELLMAN: ADDRESSING THE PHYSICS OF PRINTING SALES

48-49 THE REAL MEDIA COLLECTIVE: NAVIGATING THROUGH A PANDEMIC

50

DEBORAH CORN: THE LONG ROAD TO NEW BUSINESS STARTS NOW

51

MEQA SMITH: WHAT 2020 HAS SHOWN IS MOST IMPORTANT

52

NSSN: NAVIGATING AUSTRALIA’S EMERGING CIRCULAR ECONOMY

54

PRINT DIARY: ALL OF THE BIGGEST UPCOMING EVENTS AND TRADESHOWS

55-66

CLASSIFIEDS: THE AUSTRALIAN PRINT INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST MARKETPLACE

To advertise call Carmen on 0410 582 450 or carmen@intermedia.com.au

ABC Copier Solutions �������������������������������55 Admag ����������������������������������������������������59 All Clever Stuff �����������������������������������������58 All Work Crane Services ���������������������������55 Allkotes ���������������������������������������������������19 Argus Business Brokers ���������������������������55 Böttcher Australia �������������������������������������54 Cherri International ����������������������������������55 CTI Colour Printer �������������������������������������60 Cyber (Aust) ����������������������������������� OFC,OBC Dataflow Business Systems ���������������������IBC D & D Mailing ������������������������������������������45 Durst Oceania �������������������������������������������5

4 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

EH Manufacturing & Alltab ������������������������58 Epson Australia ����������������������������������������11 Esko ����������������������������������������������������������7 Fuji Xerox Australia ����������������������������������15 FUJIFILM Australia ����������������������������������13 Gecko Sticker Signage �����������������������������65 Giga Print ������������������������������������������������57 Graphfix Trade Solutions ���������������������������66 Guru Labels ����������������������������������������61,62 Hero Print �����������������������������������������������2,3 Hilton Laminating �������������������������������������56 J W Graphics �������������������������������������������63 Jetmark ����������������������������������������������23,39

Kodak ����������������������������������������������������29 Labelline �������������������������������������������������56 Lifhart �����������������������������������������������������55 Mister Magnets �����������������������������������56,62 MT Envelopes ������������������������������������������58 National Auctions �������������������������������������64 NEKKORB Solutions ���������������������������������27 Nettl Australia �����������������������������������������53 Periodical Press ���������������������������������������64 Screen GP (Aust) ��������������������������������������19 Stewart Graphics �������������������������������������60 Top Line Binding ��������������������������������������63

SPRINTER.COM.AU

P5 350 HYBRID LIKE NEVER BEFORE

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Multi track

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NEWS

Editor’s Comment

IVE inks $100M deal with ACM; buys its WA print site

By Hafizah Osman

The end of the year is near; and hopefully with that, the end of a year of trials and tribulations. Thankfully, the industry has been getting its much-needed support since COVID-19 hit.

Industry associations have lobbied – and still are lobbying – for provisions surrounding print and the government, too, recently injected investments through the Budget to boost the economy. These have been welcomed by industry.

But businesses should be charting their own paths to ensure business continuity as it’s anyone’s guess when this pandemic will clear.

As businesses wind down for the holidays, it’s worth assessing what 2020 has taught us, and what steps need to be taken to build a better 2021. Change is never easy, but one thing we’ve learnt is that it’s essential. We only hope that 2021 is a better year for all. Have a good break over the holidays and we’ll be back with you next year.

IVE Group Limited (ASX:IGL) and the Australian Community Media (ACM) have entered into a long-term, five-year contract worth $100 million for IVE to print and distribute publications currently published and managed by ACM. To support ACM’s requirements, and further enhance service to IVE’s customers, IVE will also acquire ACM’s Western Australian printing operation in Mandurah, which will serve as the first Western Australian print site for the former.

Leveraging more than 200 years of experience and heritage across both organisations, IVE said the partnership will allow ACM to focus on content development across its media brands, the launch of new products, and entry into new markets, whilst all underpinned by a large, local marketing production and distribution businesses.

IVE CEO Matt Aitken said, “With over 170 publications nationwide, we are proud to support ACM’s media brands in connecting with millions of Australians.

IVE’s Matt Aitken says the move supports both business’ growth plans

“We are excited by ACM’s growth plans and believe IVE’s diverse product and service offering is key to ACM unlocking further strategic value in their business.”

The move follows ACM’s agreement with News Corp Australia and Nine Entertainment Group (formerly Fairfax) to utilise each other’s printing networks.

At the time of the agreement, ACM also confirmed the closure of three of its four print sites – with Canberra and Murray Bridge closing effective 28 August and Ballarat closing effective 2 October – as ACM moves to print its material and Nine’s at News Corp’s facilities.

Managing Director James Wells 02 8586 6101 james@intermedia.com.au

Editor Hafizah Osman 0431 466 140 hosman@intermedia.com.au

National Sales Manager Carmen Ciappara 0410 582 450 carmen@proprint.com.au

Subscriptions (02) 9660 2113 subscriptions@intermedia.com.au Subscription rate (6 issues) Australia $79

Printed by Hero Print Alexandria, NSW, 2015

Mailed by D&D Mailing Services Wetherill Park, NSW, 2164

The announcement also follows Spotpress and ACM at North Richmond gaining the work that popped up because of News Corp Australia’s shift to digital in regional areas.

ACM executive chairman Antony Catalano said, “We are delighted to partner with IVE which has a long and successful history of delivering on complex production and distribution challenges.

“ACM is evolving as a business and we’re looking for ways to streamline our operations to allow us to focus on what we do best; creating and delivering great content.

We look forward to working with IVE Group as we continue that journey.”

Design and Production Manager Carrie Tong 02 8586 6195 carrie@i-grafix.com

Australian Printer is published bi-monthly by Printer Media Group, registered in Australia ABN 47 628 473 334. This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form in whole or in part without the written permission of the publishers. While every care has been taken in the preparation of this magazine, it is a condition of distribution that the publisher does not assume any responsibility or liability for any loss or damage which may result from any inaccuracy or omission in the publication.

6 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

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NEWS

Ocean Reeve Publishing buys Clark & Mackay

By Hafizah Osman Fourth-generation Brisbane print operation, Clark & Mackay, has been sold to Queensland independent book publisher, Ocean Reeve Publishing, with the official changeover effective from November 1.

Clark & Mackay print is a well-known and respected family business which started in 1928 and has always been led by a member of the Mackay family. Ocean Reeve Publishing is a Brisbane and Gold Coast based international book publishing company that specialises in publishing the works of self and independent authors.

Once the sale is completed, Clark & Mackay owner Neil Mackay will retire but will still consult with the new owners as and when required. Mackay said the business will operate as is, with no changes to its name, staffing or operations.

Neil Mackay will retire following the sale of his business

“There will be no changes to the way Clark & Mackay operates, and that was one of the reasons why I was happy with the sale,” Mackay said.

“The loyalty and service that my many clients and suppliers have provided me has been exceptional. I’ve had clients that have done business with me for 40 years, so I have a lot of associations built up and they’ve been very important to me. They’re not happy with me retiring, but this is the best move possible.”

Mackay said the idea to sell was never a thought until last year.

“I had to retire sometime, even though I wasn’t looking to do it now. But after working as the central Australian printer for Ocean Reeve Publishing and getting to know their work ethic and integrity, it was actually an easy decision,” Mackay said.

“I knew the way we have looked after our community and customers for the last 92 years would continue under their leadership”.

Ocean Reeve Publishing managing director Ocean Reeve, who has a background in publishing and selfpublishing, said he had been looking to bring print into what his business did in-house.

“Going into the last decade, I knew there was going to be considerable changes in how print was going to adapt and change with the technology that was coming,” he said.

“Neil was not going to look down the direction of inkjet printing or wide format, so it made practical sense for us to incorporate our growth that we’ve had as an independent publishing house with print.”

Ocean Reeve Publishing will move to the same premises as Clark & Mackay in Brisbane’s Acacia Ridge.

“We’ve got a strong personal connection with Neil and are incredibly respectful of the way he and his family have managed the company’s operations. I could never ever see us taking that name down.

When you buy a business like that, you buy into the people,” Reeve said.

Jason Smith, who currently holds the position of publishing manager at Ocean Reeve Publishing, will become incoming managing director.

“To continue the legacy Neil and his family have established is an honour,” Smith mentioned.

Southern Colour rebrands to Southern Impact

By Hafizah Osman

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

Southern Impact is the amalgamation of three leading print companies

of Impact Digital with the personalised printing services of Intelligent Media,” he said.

“Combine these with tailored software solutions

8 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

and our wide-reaching distribution, warehousing, kitting and logistics services, 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 said 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. As part of this rebranding and streamlining, Southern Colour, Impact Digital, Intelligent Media and Onpack have all been relocated to 181 and 195 Forster Road in Mount Waverley.

SPRINTER.COM.AU

NEWS

Craftech falls into administration

By Hafizah Osman A NSW wide format print house, Craftech, has fallen into administration and has appointed insolvency and business advisory company O’Brien Palmer as its administrators. Craftech was known as a full service, one-stop-shop, central hub of all things wide format, based in Seven Hills in NSW. It offered print for applications such as point of sale, in-store marketing, promotional material, banners, posters, outdoor signage, temporary and semi-permanent instore displays as well as laser engraving and cutting.

According to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the company, registered as Craftech Custodians Pty Limited, is facing external administration. A number of Craftech’s wide format

By Hafizah Osman

A number of Craftech’s solutions were auctioned off post-administration

printing presses and equipment were placed for auction at Liquid Asset Management post-administration.

Liquid Asset Management managing director Neil Schiller said, “the online auction was initially taken offline as the administrators had been approached by some people to acquire Craftech, but they were unable to reach an agreement. So, they proceeded

to sell the equipment by auction again”.

The list of equipment that went into auction included flatbed cutters, flatbed printers, a laser engraver machine, a stretch pallet wrapper, a single-sided laminator, pre-press and post-press equipment, a latex printer, a forklift, a heat shrink wrapper, dust filter, as well as pallet racking.

Yohei Konaka takes on the reins at KM Australia

By Hafizah Osman

Yohei Konaka has officially taken on the role of managing director at Konica Minolta Australia, following a delay in his official appointment due to COVID-19. Konaka was named managing director of Konica Minolta Australia in early April, but was unable to travel to Australia due to coronavirus restrictions.

As a result, outgoing managing director of the company, Dr David Cooke, who announced his resignation from Konica Minolta in February, confirmed that he would stay in the role to see

SPRINTER.COM.AU

HP fined US$6M over APJ sales practices

Yohei Konaka is now able to take the helm as MD at KM Australia

out the Japanese financial year and facilitate a smooth transition to his successor.

Over the past six months, Konaka has been working remotely with Dr Cooke and the executive team to

understand the local market, which he says has given him a “valuable head start” on creating a vision for the next 12 months and beyond.

Most recently, he held a senior role in the digital workplace business at Konica Minolta Inc. in Japan, working on the development of key initiatives to contribute to the company’s digital transformation strategy.

“I look forward to taking on this role and continuing to drive the legacy that Dr David Cooke has left, as well as looking at ways to drive Konica Minolta Australia into the future,” Konaka said.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has announced charges against HP Inc. for allegedly misleading investors in Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ) by failing to disclose the impact of sales practices undertaken in an effort to meet quarterly sales and earnings targets.

According to the SEC, HP has agreed to pay US$6 million to settle the charges in a matter where HP failed to disclose material information regarding its print supplies channel inventory management and sales practices between November 2015 and June 2016. During that period, “certain regional managers at HP undertook undisclosed sales practices to increase quarterly operating profit, leading to an erosion of profit margin and an increase in channel inventory, while failing to disclose known trends and uncertainties associated with the conduct”.

According to the SEC’s order, in an effort to meet quarterly sales targets, these HP managers used a variety of incentives to accelerate, or “pull-in” to the current quarter, sales of printing supplies that they otherwise expected to materialise in later quarters.

The order further finds that, in an effort to meet revenue and earnings targets, managers in one HP region sold printing supplies at “substantial discounts” to resellers known to sell HP products outside of the resellers’ designated territories, in violation of HP policy and distributor agreements.

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 9

NEWS

Currie Group brings to A/NZ Scodix’s new Ultra series

By Hafizah Osman Scodix has announced the commercial launch of the next generation of its Ultra Digital Enhancement Press Series, consisting of six presses, each targeted to a specific market segment.

The range will be made available in A/NZ from Currie Group.

Aimed at the W2P market, the Scodix Ultra 3000 and Ultra 4000 presses both incorporate Scodix Studio W2P software. Developed with Shutterfly and District Photo in mind, the Ultra 3000 focusses on Web2Print, whilst the Ultra 4000, which allows for larger format substrates and pallet feeders and stackers, is aimed at Web2Pack printers. The Scodix Ultra 1000 and 2000 presses are designed for commercial and speciality, and are distinguished by the number of applications available – and consequently are offered to the market at different price points. The Ultra 1000 delivers accessible digital enhancement whilst the Ultra 2000 offers all Scodix applications on one platform, including automatic polymer switching for superior productivity. As for the Scodix Ultra 5000 and 6000, they both allow the thicker substrates required for packaging applications – up to 2mm – and incorporate industrial pallet feeders and stackers.

Currie Group has also recently made available A B Graphic’s expanded range of modules for its Digicon Series 3 DigiJet (JetFX).

Bauer (now Are Media) to trial magazine sales with Australia Post and Aldi

By Hafizah Osman Bauer Media has a new name – it is now known as Are Media – and with the change comes a revamped strategy for the business, which includes a magazine sales trial with Australia Post and Aldi. Are Media CEO Brendon Hill said moving forward, the company will put into action diversification plans and opportunities that will take its business to the next level and benefit the broader publishing industry and magazine category.

“Are Media marks the start of a new chapter for the business with a focus on innovation and growth,” he said.

“These include optimising our print media via new distribution channels such as a new trial with Australia Post to sell our magazines and Aldi, which will sell Bluey magazine. We are also going to invest in the magazine category with ATL media campaigns, encouraging and supporting magazines as a captivating, engaging and highly-read medium.”

According to Hill, the rebrand will not change any existing deals in place with its local print partner, Ovato, but rather, also build on their existing partnership.

Are Media CEO Brendon Hill said its new focus will benefit the broader publishing industry

Ovato CEO Kevin Slaven said the rebrand of Bauer Media to Are Media sits in line with Ovato’s business transition plans.

“We have a strong partnership based on decades of experience printing and publishing magazines. The rebrand to Are Media is very much in line with the transition we undertook in moving to Ovato in 2019, putting the audience and the value for our clients and customers at the heart of the proposition to market. We’re very proud to be a core partner for this next stage of the publishing evolution,” he said.

Durst to bring Vanguard Digital Printing solutions to A/NZ

By Hafizah Osman Durst is strengthening its position in the graphics industry by acquiring a majority stake in US printer manufacturer, Vanguard Digital Printing and has future plans in place to bring the latter’s solutions into the A/NZ market.

Durst Oceania managing director Matt Ashman said Vanguard Digital Printing’s solutions will most likely be made available in the local market early next year.

“At the moment, we’ll be concentrating on Vanguard Digital Printing’s home

10 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

Durst’s Matt Ashman is optimistic about Vanguard’s local availability

market. The business has not sold outside of the US market yet,” Ashman said.

“But certainly, the plans are for Durst Oceania to bring

Vanguard Digital Printing’s solutions into A/NZ. It’s an indication that Durst is constantly looking for new opportunities and that opportunities within wide format are still large.

Vanguard Digital Printing has some great technology that will be of interest to Durst and Durst customers.”

As part of the agreement, Vanguard Digital Printing will operate as Vanguard Durst Digital Printing Systems as of October 1. David Cich will remain as the company’s CEO while Jim Peterson will continue to serve as its vicepresident of sales.

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NEWS

Federal Budget kickstarts COVID-hit businesses

By Sheree Young

The Federal Government has delivered what it calls a gamechanging Budget containing significant support for business including a green light for the immediate write-off of any eligible asset in the year the equipment is installed and a loss carry-back tax initiative.

The immediate writeoff applies to operations with a turnover of up to $5 billion and is aimed squarely at encouraging plant and equipment investment before the measure expires on June 30, 2022. In all, this measure is expected to cost $26.7 billion by the time it comes to an end. The incentive will apply to around $200 billion worth of investment, including 80 per cent of investment in depreciable assets by nonmining businesses.

The cost of improvements to existing eligible depreciable assets made during this period can also be fully deducted.

Other Budget goodies designed to rejuvenate the economy include backdating and bringing forward tax cuts for employees by two years.

Wage subsides targeted at 16 to 35-year-olds who are on JobSeeker benefits when they are employed have also been announced and are expected to put 450,000 people back into work. So far, business groups have come out in support of the Budget with The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell describing it as a “blockbuster” Budget and Ai Group CEO Innes Willox said

The Federal Government has delivered a “game-changing Budget” containing significant support for business

it is a “Budget that is right for our times”.

In announcing the Budget, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the private sector is the engine of the Australian economy and due to the ravages of COVID-19 is in need of an urgent kickstart.

“Building on the successful expansion of the Instant Asset Write Off during the COVID crisis, tonight we go further, announcing the largest set of investment incentives any Australian Government has ever provided,” he said.

“Over 99 per cent of businesses will be able to write off the full value of any eligible asset they purchase for their business. This will be available for those with a turnover of up to $5 billion until June 2022.

“It will dramatically expand the productive capacity of the nation and create tens of thousands of jobs.”

Another measure that will offer significant help for businesses that usually turn a profit but this year won’t due

12 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

to the pandemic has been the introduction of a loss carry-back system.

This allows businesses, in addition to the immediate expensing, to offset prior profits made in or after the 2018-2019 financial year.

“The combination of the immediate expensing and loss carry-back measures will create an additional 50,000 jobs across the country,” Frydenberg said.

“Together with our reforms to insolvency and the provision of credit, we are giving Australian businesses their best chance to succeed and keep more people in work.

“The tax loss carryback measure available for businesses with turnovers of less than $5 billion will provide invaluable cash flow support for many businesses suffering from the current crisis. It will allow many to stay in business, keep employing people and invest for the future. The provisions will apply in relation to losses

in the current and 2021-22 financial years.”

Another key plank of the Budget is the the JobMaker Hiring Credit to encourage business to hire younger Australians, aged 16 to 35.

The JobMaker Hiring Credit will be payable for up to 12 months and immediately available to employers who hire those on JobSeeker.

It will be paid at the rate of $200 per week for those aged under 30 and $100 per week for those aged between 30 and 35. New employees must work for at least 20 hours a week.

This initiative is estimated to help 450,000 people find work.

Earlier this year the Federal Government committed to a $2.8 billion scheme for to protect 180,000 apprentices and trainees.

The Budget has taken this further with an additional $1.2 billion set aside to create 100,000 apprenticeships and traineeships with a 50 per cent wage subsidy for the businesses who employ them.

SPRINTER.COM.AU

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NEWS: BUSINESS

PRINT STOCK WATCH: SEPT 01 - NOV 01

ASX (AUD$) Amcor

Price

Change

16.06

Year High

Year Low

0.12  16.53

9.87

IVE

0.76 0.025  2.56

0.24

News Corp

19.75

0.13  22.74

13.10

1.38

0.015  3.39

oOh!media Ovato

0.55

0.012 0.002  0.063

0.007

Redbubble 5.19 0.39  6.02 18

4

16

3

14

2

12

1

10

NOVEMBER 2019

NOVEMBER 2020

0

0.40

News Corp is developing a purpose built 11,215sqm printing facility NOVEMBER 2019

AMCOR

NYSE (US$)

NOVEMBER 2020

OOH!MEDIA

Price

Change

Year High

Year Low

Adobe

506.31 8.00  536.88

255.13

Apple

121.19 0.09  137.98

53.15

Canon

15.79 0.47  28.41

Fujifilm

50.10

News Corp

0.75  58.00

14.11

Xerox

0.11  15.70

7.88 14.22

16

25

14

20

12

15

10

10

NOVEMBER 2019

NOVEMBER 2020

8

NOVEMBER 2019

CANON

DAX (EURO) Agfa

15.77 36.60

20.01 0.08  39.47

30

NOVEMBER 2020

NEWS CORP

Price

Change

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Year Low

3.54 0.005  4.92

2.90

Heidelberg 0.56 0.002  1.38 0.48 Koenig & Bauer 18.68 Metsa Board UPM

0.08  38.90

7.70

4.17 20.31

35

1.2

30

0.8

25

0.4

20

0

14.42

0.12  7.89

26.28 0.10  31.50

1.6

NOVEMBER 2019

NOVEMBER 2020

HEIDELBERG

15

News Corp Australia commits to new VIC print facility

NOVEMBER 2019

NOVEMBER 2020

KOENIG & BAUER

14 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

By Hafizah Osman News Corp Australia has committed to a 10-year term lease on a printing and distribution facility in Victoria, at Logos Property’s Truganina Logistics Estate in western Melbourne. The site is a purpose built 11,215sqm printing facility which is scheduled to be completed in November this year.

The facility is expected to become the company’s new Melbourne print centre for its Victorian newspapers including the Herald Sun. “After selling its heritage print facility in Port Melbourne, News Corp is reinvesting into its operational efficiencies with this new development,” property and supply chain firm TM Insight property director Justin Fried said in a statement.

“This new purposebuilt print centre has been designed according to best practice layout for the highly specialised printing and publishing equipment that will be installed.”

Stage 1 of works have been completed, with Logos Property head of A/NZ Darren Searle saying that the business is pleased to be working with News Corp to deliver the facility.

“We are pleased to be commencing development of

the Estate with a commitment from News Corp and look forward to working with FDC and our local consultants to deliver this new facility for them,” Searle added.

News Corp Australasia recently announced major changes to its newspaper publishing, with the bulk of its regional and community newspapers to be produced in a digital-only format from June 29 with some smaller community papers to close completely. It also suspended printing 60 community newspapers in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia from April 9.

The news also follows the announcement in August that The Australian Community Media (ACM), News Corp Australia and Nine Entertainment Group have entered into an agreement to utilise each other’s printing networks. Together with the agreement, ACM confirmed the closure of its Canberra, Murray Bridge and Ballarat print sites as ACM moves to print its material and Nine’s at News Corp’s facilities.

In July, Sprinter published that News Corp Australia was in discussions with print staff at its two south east Queensland print operations, with plans afoot to consolidate the Yandina and Murarrie production sites into one.

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(l-r) The Greenridge Group’s Kyal Osborne and Lyndon Baker test the capabilities of the RMGT 920 PF press

Greenridge continues Cyber relationship The Greenridge Group has a clear vision to further its business; and to achieve these goals, it has purchased an RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press from Cyber

T

he Greenridge Group prides itself by not just selling print – it aims to help businesses communicate with their customers. And Greenridge Group’s strategy to do this is fuelled by its ongoing partnership with Cyber Australia, and the presses it has purchased from them, including a new RMGT 920 PF eightcolour LED UV press. With sales offices throughout Queensland, the Greenridge Group is made of its flagship entity, Greenridge Press, as well as Cranbrook Press (Toowoomba), Westminster Printing (Brisbane), Creed and Lang Printers

(Warwick), and the newly acquired business of Ultra Print (Brisbane).

The business also has a communications division under Greenridge Connect, which assists with direct mail and electronic communications (email and SMS).

“Growth through acquisition has been a good strategy for the Greenridge Group over the last few years. We’re a true commercial printer – we print publications, trade journals, books, magazines, and periodicals. We have a wide range of machinery, with presses from Cyber,” Greenridge Group print group general manager Kyal Osborne said.

16 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

“We have customers all the way up and down the Eastern seaboard and a lot of them are high-end users of quality products. We also have a number of communications contracts for transactional communications across the region.”

Osborne, whose father, Mark, started the company under the business name of Toowoomba Business Services in 1992, was trained as an accountant before he joined the business in 2003.

Since its inception, the company has evolved into TBS Printing, which was followed by Greenridge Press, and has continued to grow steadily for over 20 years, with a focus on quality and service.

With multiple businesses in operation, Osborne said it was imperative for the business to have the right machinery to support growth.

“We’ve got a wide gamut of machinery – eight colour LED UV presses which are the flagship installs, other one and two colour offset presses, and a number of HP

SPRINTER.COM.AU

COVER FEATURE Indigo and Fuji Xerox digital presses.

We have wide format machines as well, which include HP Latex and Agfa LED UV flatbeds,” he said.

“We’ve now added the RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press to our fleet, which we purchased from Cyber.

“We’ve had a long-standing relationship with Cyber and have purchased many presses from the business. This is our second LED UV press that we’ve purchased from Cyber.

“In the past, we’ve had a long association with RMGT presses. We got our first RMGT four-colour 52 press from Cyber back in the early 2000s and since then, we’ve added on many four or fivecolour machines as well, as we’ve grown.”

The main workhorse Greenridge has purchased a new RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press from Cyber Australia

The RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press is said to be single-handedly driving the LED-UV evolution.

It features a dry-to-dry printing system in combination with the RMGT nine-series press, offering businesses cost savings by reducing power consumption and installation space, whilst delivering on quality, productivity, ease of use, and environmental benefits – the nine-series press reduces carbon dioxide emissions to the lowest in the industry, according to Cyber. In addition, the press includes no odours, no need for overprint varnishing, a longer lifespan, printing on film and cardboard just like conventional offset presses, as well as reduced heat generation, in addition to other features.

The RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press marks the eighth press that the Greenridge Group has purchased from Cyber.

“We started with RMGT in a 52 size.

We then upgraded to a five-colour, then upgraded to a 750 size B2 press. We then purchased a couple of 750 five-colours, then upgraded to a 750 eight-colour – which was our first LED UV press. That was four or five years ago,” Osborne said.

“And we’ve now upgraded to the RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press. We’ve continually traded in presses to upgrade to newer and better models.

“That just gives us extra capacity, having to run just one machine instead of multiple ones doing that one job.”

Osborne’s interest in the RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press started pre-COVID-19, when Cyber invited him to its open house demonstration in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in February this year.

He took the trip over to see the press in

SPRINTER.COM.AU

The RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press is available locally from Cyber Australia

operation and was impressed with its modern capabilities.

“The benefits that we could derive from the press were outstanding and we were keen to invest in this technology.

As we’ve been acquiring other businesses and amalgamating them into our group, we’ve needed extra capacity,” he said.

“The 750 has helped us throughout the last few years, but we’re starting to hit its heat capacity, so going into the 920 and the speed efficiencies we’d be able to derive from the technology is unparalleled.

“It also alleviates any bottlenecks we have within print production as the 920 will be our main workhorse. It will do the majority of the colour production as far as print is concerned and it will be the

flagship press for us, doing the lion’s share of our colour production,” he said.

Osborne also mentioned that the press enables the business to move into areas beyond its current reach.

“It’s a versatile press, so in addition to the colour production that we do, we can move into other areas like synthetics printing, which opens us up to printing on substrates like plastics. It’s a potential growth area for us to pursue with this technology,” he added.

A strong foundation Cyber Australia managing director Bernard Cheong said as Greenridge has always been a very forward looking

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 17

COVER FEATURE

A business leader with a forward vision: Cyber Australia managing director Bernard Cheong

business, its investment into the RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press was seeded early.

“When Greenridge was purchasing the RMGT 758GP LED a few years ago, we had a conversation about ‘what’s next’.

As such, the RMGT 920PF-8 LED had been on their wish list from five years ago,” Cheong said.

“This investment fits in with their business strategy and is needed as it builds on its goals. Greenridge has been steadily growing, surpassing the KPIs that it has set for itself year after year. The utility on its existing RMGT 758GP LED was high, so the purchase of the 920 was a natural progression.”

According to Cheong, this press was the most suitable for Greenridge’s business plans given that it is one of the most profitable presses to operate.

“Its footprint is 33cm longer and 12cm wider, the plate size is 34 per cent larger, and its throughput is doubled.

The arrival of the 920PF-8 LED fixes both Greenridge’s capacity and cost issues – it kills two birds with one stone as it increases productivity and reduces the cost of production at the same time,” he mentioned.

“The RMGT 920PF-8 is suitable for ultra-short-run (digital printing) to long run jobs. We have commercial printers, publishing printers and packaging printers (light weight folding cartons) all running the same press.

“This is a press designed by the printers for printers and this is what Greenridge wanted. We got it for them.”

Cheong also mentioned that the 920PF-8 LED has been one of the most profitable presses for the business.

“This is the most profitable press – we have many repeat users. One of RMGT’s

The RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press is said to have provided “outstanding benefits”

users in Japan purchased 23 units of the 920PF-8 LED press in 10 years. One of our users in Malaysia purchased 4 four 920PF-8 presses and four 920ST-4 presses in six years.

“CMYKhub in Australia has three 920PF-8 LED presses in operation and Greenridge is also now a leader in delivering quality solutions with the install of this press.”

Cheong said having Greenridge as a long-time user of RMGT and now a user of the RMGT 920PF-8 LED opens up Cyber to more business in Australia.

“Greenridge is one of the first customers of Cyber Australia when we started business in the country in 2004 and it has always been one of the lighthouse reference users for us,” he stated.

“Many prospects have visited Greenridge and have spoken to Kyal and Mark (his father) prior to making their decisions. We are very fortunate to have their assistance and in return, we will bend over backwards to accommodate their needs. The Osbornes are more than just customers – they are family friends.”

Return on investment Osborne said the purchase of the RMGT 920 PF eight-colour LED UV press was a “good investment” for the Greenridge business as it provides good ROI. “With an investment of this size, you need to be able to work out your ROI. This machine provides us with the efficiencies we get from it and the added capacity we have in our production. That return was the right one for us for our direction forward – the return on the capital investment, the environmental benefits of it, the benefits of speediness through production – all made it a straightforward decision in the end,” he said.

18 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

As with many other press installations worldwide, Greenridge too faced a minor setback in the installation process as a result of global restrictions following the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Once we got through the worst part of that, we were able to work with Cyber to get it going out of Singapore which was amazing because a lot of transport routes weren’t up and running yet,” he said.

With trained engineers all over the country, Cyber then used local Queensland personnel to do the installation.

“We were fortunate as Cyber usually flies out its engineers to assist local engineers and always has a team of local installers at hand. We were allocated two local engineers that were trained on RMGT presses and they are based in Brisbane so we got access to them and their skills,” he said.

Osborne added that the investment in this press has pivoted Greenridge for future acquisitions.

“The main driver is to grow our group of companies and having this press allows us to do just that. As we keep adding entities and growing our revenue streams, this machine will allow us to pursue these additional investments,” he said.

Cheong added that from this install, other businesses can learn about the need to create new opportunities from investments in new and upgraded presses.

“There is a silver lining in every cloud – there are always opportunities. Greenridge had and has a sound business model and its future planned. COVID or not, it stuck to the plan and this will help accelerate its business growth,” he said.

“Businesses that are not well run and operate old and outdated equipment will fade away at a more rapid rate, while progressive businesses will soar to greater heights. That’s the way of today’s world.”

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AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 19

PEOPLE IN PRINT

Being part of a “seismic change” Asher Levy, who recently took on the role of active chairman at Landa Digital Printing, joined the company to be a part of its lead in innovation

E

arlier this year, Asher Levy was named active chairman at Landa Digital Printing (LDP). Previously the CEO of Orbotech Ltd, Levy joined LDP at a time of great opportunity, but also faced unforeseen challenges with the COVID-19 pandemic impacting most global industries.

Speaking about his first few months with the company, Levy provided AP with insight into this transition for the print industry, his role at LDP, and his future plans for the business.

Q: Given a long and distinguished career at Orbotech what were your reasons for joining LDP?

Asher Levy (AL): I was heavily influenced by my first meeting with Benny Landa in 2019. Benny visited us at Orbotech and gave a brief presentation about LDP – I was simply fascinated by what he shared. We then kept in contact and later in the year, Benny invited me to join the company as active chairman.

I joined the company as Benny himself is very impressive. Secondly, I did some research of my own and looked at the company, the technology, the addressable market size and then the wider industry. At that point, I realised that the opportunity for nanography could be huge.

In business, not many people can say that they were a part of a revolution, or a seismic change within an industry. Of course, I wanted to be a part of it.

Q: What are your responsibilities in the role of active chairman?

AL:

In its broadest terms, it is to complement, support and to be a true partner to the CEO. In the dayto-day, that means that I have an active

role in business development planning, as well as helping to define all strategic initiatives as to long-term product and growth strategies. What’s more, it also means preparing the company for its next key initiatives – whether that be in raising capital or hiring senior personnel. In addition, and together with the CEO and its founder, my role is also to underpin the company’s values and its culture.

Q: Not long after you joined the company, the world was hit by COVID-19 – how did that impact your first few months?

AL:

Well, COVID-19 has had a huge and profound impact on the whole world, so it naturally dominated my time, especially as I was also acting as the interim CEO. The pandemic’s impact was felt in every area of the business, with many questions for us to answer, such as, how do we now communicate with customers? How do we demonstrate our presses? What happens now that drupa 2020 has postponed? And critically, how do we continue to support customers in the field?

And in answering those questions, I have to say that I was impressed by how the business responded. The management team did an amazing job in reacting quickly, making swift changes to limit any long-term financial impact.

Travel was instantly shut down, including in Asia Pacific, and physical meetings became a challenge. Our comprehensive service infrastructure that includes both remote support offered by our centre in Israel, together with our experienced local engineers in the field, proved its effectiveness and adeptly handled, and is handling, the challenge of keeping our customers operational and trained up.

20 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

We also quickly and nimbly transformed our ongoing onsite customer visits and press demonstrations to ongoing full scale online demo events – which on the positive side, has enabled more of the industry to publically access the information about our presses and technology that they want.

In addition, our wider team also worked very quickly and smartly to address the other key challenges too.

Crucially, we hired experienced local engineers in the field to support our customers and to keep them operational.

In hindsight, the pandemic definitely fast-tracked my on-boarding process, and this meant that I very quickly got to know the business.

And while COVID-19 continues to be a challenge, I can’t think of one situation where the team wasn’t able to find a viable solution for a problem.

Q: What were your initial key observations about the business?

AL:

There are many. If I start with culture, some companies make you feel like everyone is replaceable, but this isn’t Benny’s way.

LDP is all about its people and this makes you feel very comfortable and welcome from day one.

My other lasting impression has been one of opportunity.

We’ve clearly got a superior solution that aggressively answers market needs, presenting a huge opportunity for us and for our customers.

We’re now in the execution phase, which brings other challenges, but I now know that these are all within our control.

I am confident that we have the talent and professionalism within our team to successfully conclude this phase, even within a pandemic.

SPRINTER.COM.AU

PEOPLE IN PRINT of the art production processes to deliver international quality in China for global brands. Subject to the pandemic, our current plan in the region is to continue shipping to China and to commence shipping to Australia sometime in the near future – but not before 2022.

Q: What are some trends in Australia that LDP intends to capitalise on?

AL:

In the Australian market, there are trends similar to many other global markets. For instance, we see growing demand to improve efficiencies in the production process – often, to support end customer requirements for faster turnaround of smaller quantities with a greater number of SKUs, whilst also reducing inventory. We also see an increased demand for environmentallyfriendly products – end-to-end.

Nanography offers a real solution to these challenges. With its unique digital printing process and water-based NanoInk, Nanography can print on any substrate without special treatment, and as a result, provide the efficiency, flexibility and quality that Australian print houses and brands are looking for.

Asher Levy addresses LDP’s future plans

Q: LDP recently appointed Arik Gordon as CEO, also from Orbotech. What can you tell us about him and his suitability for the role?

AL:

Hiring a new CEO was one of my first tasks and Arik was my first choice for the role. I feel very lucky to have secured him. Arik has a strong technology background with lots of relevant experience, but he also brings with him a unique combination of attributes.

He’s a nice and genuine guy, but he’s also a great leader with a solid approach to people. He brings the most out of them.

What’s more, and from our previous life at Orbotech, I can tell you that he’s also great at business strategy – he’s not afraid to challenge and he’s also able to think differently. A great fit for Landa.

Q: So, what are some of your main objectives for the next 12 months?

AL:

In the immediate future, and like most companies, it is to be ready for when the market re-opens. Of course,

SPRINTER.COM.AU

there are still some great unknowns, especially with regards to the COVID-19 challenge and its potential impact on the world economy and our customer’s businesses. But from conversations with our customers, who are positive about the future, I’m very optimistic.

So, to support them and to keep them running when the world starts to unlock, we will further strengthen our consumables model, which will undoubtedly see increased demand.

We will also continue to build a challenging yet reliable and achievable business plan for 2021.

Q: LDP installed its first Nanographic Printing press in the APAC in January. What are some other company plans for this region?

AL:

Landa’s first customer in the region is ZRP, one of the top three carton printing companies in China. It has around 40 offset presses installed across four plants, utilising state

Q: Since LDP has received a capital boost in Nanographic Print, what lies in the future of this technology?

AL:

Our focus remains on the rollout of our Landa S10 and S10P for the commercial, folding carton and display and publishing sectors, as well as the continued development of our Landa W10 series press for the flexible packaging sector. Beyond that, with the substrate flexibility provided by Nanography, we expect the technology to touch all mainstream printing markets in the future: from web-fed publishing and corrugated, to labels and metal printing, and textiles.

Q: As LDP will be attending drupa 2021, what can we expect from the company at the upcoming tradeshow?

AL:

Yes, we definitely plan to participate in the next drupa.

But this is of course subject to the thenprevailing public health situation. If we feel it is safe for our employees and our customers, we’ll be there. As for what visitors can expect, as you know, we like to surprise – but you can rest assured that it will be a good show.

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 21

WOMEN IN PRINT

All about personal growth:

Susan Heaney Susan Heaney has seen every step of her career as an opportunity to build her skill sets, and she took the necessary steps to attain them

S

usan Heaney has print in her blood – her father started his own business in print in the ‘70s after a career as a print supplier and printer of newspapers – but she never intended to take over his business or be where she is today.

Currently, Heaney is the managing director of Heaneys Performers in Print, Surfers Inkspot Printers and StylePrint, and she has attained her achievements through lots of hard work.

“I worked in the electricity and travel industries for about 10 years and while I used to help my father out in his business occasionally when I was younger, my future dreams weren’t about printing. In fact, I never wanted to work in the family business,” she said.

“But in 1989, because – according to my father – I was ‘doing nothing’ even though I had a 16-month-old child and was running my own small business, he had asked me to help him. I was going to help him out for a couple of weeks and 31 years later I’m still here, now at the helm.

“Dad wanted me to come in and help him restructure the business. It was a hard time in the business community, so I suggested the introduction of business partners to help grow and stabilise the business. Two business partners were introduced over the next couple of years and in the meantime, I was still involved, having been tasked with looking after the company’s finances.”

Heaney said when she first joined the business, she required a new skill set, most of which was acquired through trial and error.

“I’ve always challenged myself to learn more and keep my skills relevant. This was what encouraged me to gain my diploma in business management and do a Trustee Directors Course,” she said.

“As technology changed, I have also attended tradeshows in Australia and abroad and discussed business strategies with interstate and international colleagues to continue to strengthen and grow the business.”

By the late ‘90s, with a number of stakeholders in the business, Susan felt a need for change.

“I told dad that one of us had to leave the business because it couldn’t continue running with multiple competing interests. I did that thinking that I would be the one to go. But he told me to buy him out. So, I doubled down on my time in the business and invested my money too. In 2004, myself and another business

22 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

partner bought the remaining partner out, and by 2009, I was the sole owner, having bought the final partner out,” she said.

Besides her day job, Heaney has spent years heavily involved in the industry at large. She was nominated and then invited to join industry body in 2002 – first the Print Industry Association in Queensland, then in 2012 she became the first woman president of Printing Industries Association Australia (now PVCA).

But her involvement didn’t stop there. She was also on the PrintEx board and PacPrint board throughout this period, a director on a superannuation board in the late ‘90s, and a founder of Women in Print in 2006.

“Currently, I am the Queensland patron and chair for the newly re-homed Women in Print organisation. I have also recently stepped up to the role of chairperson at Media Super,” she added.

Being a part of these organisations is, and has been, a great learning opportunity for Heaney.

“I have always been an advocate for print and have always felt compelled to give back to the larger industry. Being able to help women prosper in this male-dominated industry has been a product of that advocacy. It has been great to see how much benefit Women in Print has brought to so many ladies and the companies they work in or own,” she said.

“Women need an environment where they feel comfortable learning, but it’s also about having a community that develops networks that benefit them by providing them with support. It has helped women stand up and make change for the better.”

She also mentioned that the industry is much more accepting of women in the trade.

“Since the level of women’s education has increased, so has the number of women in the industry. It may still be a male-dominated industry but that is shifting; the number of women taking up print as a career has certainly increased during my time in the industry.

Not only that, they are leaders in their fields,” she said.

“I want to pass on my commitment to personal growth to those who I mentor; I try and develop this trait with other women in the industry and with my daughter as well.”

All in all, Heaney is a self-made leader. While she may have aimed for personal growth, she has actually overseen and inspired growth across the industry.

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FEATURE

The need to enhance print for engagement With the changing distribution model for printers comes the need for print to be enhanced. So, where are the greatest areas of opportunity?

C

onsumers are wanting print to be more engaging, with the increase of omni-channel communications, it’s more important than ever that the printed piece plays a major role to engage with consumers in a targeted, meaningful and measurable way.

This enables businesses to pivot from traditional markets and bring greater value to what was once a static piece, according to HP Indigo Australia country manager Craig Walmsley.

HP’s Indigo portfolio is focused on three main market segments globally, including the following: • Commercial – including the introduction of the new HP Indigo 100K Digital Press, a 6000 impression per hour B2 four-colour unit along with the HP Indigo 15K and HP Indigo 7K Digital Presses • Labels & flexible packaging – which includes the HP Indigo 25K and 6K Digital Presses • Packaging – which includes the HP Indigo 35K Digital Press “The HP Indigo market in Australia is extensive. If you look across those market segments, we’re by far the market leader in the industry, mainly driven by flexibility of the product portfolio,” Walmsley said.

“We are making presses as productive as possible through automation, with less input and waste. The new HP Indigo 100K Digital Press, for example, drives up to 50 per cent more productivity.”

Labels and packaging has been a significant growth area for the business over the last few years, with Walmsley saying that HP has been able to build new market segments in flexible packaging and high value labels applications.

“We are constantly striving to meet the needs of the market; our clients are

looking to ultimately differentiate and diversify their product offerings. So, what HP Indigo does, which is unique, is being able to cater for that existing commoditytype work but also allow them to move into different segments and adding value to speciality applications to make it more engaging,” he said.

This is achieved through a combination of the ink portfolio with the special effects and additional features such as security.”

Walmsley identified how the newest HP Indigo technology has transformed operations for a local business.

Queensland-based Allclear Print + Signs has been a long-time user of HP Indigo technology and recently installed the first HP Indigo 12000 HD B2 Digital Press in Australia. The press superseded an HP Indigo 10000 that the business ran for about seven years.

“They’ve been using HP Indigo technology since 2012. They’ve now got a B2 high-definition press, which allows them to differentiate and continue on their quality journey,” Walmsley said.

“They’ve been able to offer more than just a four-colour printed piece – with the HD technology, they’ve been able to lift the quality and feel of that document.”

The presses were supplied by HP’s local distributor Currie Group.

Walmsley said Currie Group has been instrumental in HP Indigo’s reach into Australia and that the company has supported and educated clients on the HP Indigo platform.

“Currie Group is our exclusive channel partner for HP Indigo and it is one of our oldest and strongest HP Indigo channel partners globally,” he said.

“The business’ experience comes into offering end-to-end solutions and it has been a fantastic partnership.”

Walmsley added that worldwide user group Dscoop also plays a role in bringing together the HP Indigo network globally.

24 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

Craig Walmsley shares some insights from his 25 years of working in the print industry and his current role with HP as the country manager for HP Indigo in A/NZ

“Dscoop is a genuine user group that has more than 8000 members around the world. That allows them to connect and collaborate with each other through virtual conversations and get insights into what’s happening on a global level and take that to a local level,” he said.

In terms of moving forward as an industry, Walmsley advised that businesses need to evolve from being in the commodity space to expanding their reach into value added applications and diversify where possible.

“We are seeing traditional commercial printers move into packaging, labels and in some cases flexible packaging which is exciting to witness the journey and evolution,” he said.

“We’re an industry that goes through constant transformation and change is the only constant.”

SPRINTER.COM.AU

FEATURE

Focus on software

But not only is hardware important in a business’ future direction, software too plays a crucial role. HP has concentrated on press knowledge with PrintOS, which allows the print manager to understand its consumables lifespan and productivity of the press, which in turn helps the production environment.

With advancements in automation, HP has also taken it a step further by using the same software to educate an operator, salesperson, and the like take the data to market to make print more engaging and unique.

HP solutions manager Daniel Blau said HP has been focusing on workflow solutions that automate processes as much as possible with digital printing.

“We’re giving customers tools to access their presses, workflows, and work processes to automate as many tasks as they can, and PrintOS is the main driver behind that. Digital printing is all about volume where possible and we want to enable printers to be able to handle those volumes easily,” he said.

Site Flow is the main end-to-end workflow product for the company under the PrintOS banner and HP Solutions APJ sales manager Joshua Symington said the solution works in modern-day businesses that want to handle increasing short-run volumes but, with a focus on personalised products.

“A major benefit of this technology is that it is cloud-based, running on Amazon Web Services (AWS), which means you get access to massive scale. You just can’t

get that with locally-owned and built products, without huge expense on server farms,” Symington said.

“With Site Flow the PSP also doesn’t need as much development capability as they may have needed in the past.”

Blau said digital workflow is a key factor in almost any business’ model today and the print industry is no different.

“Almost every industry is being transformed and printing is heading down that path as well,” he said.

“The truly successful PSPs of the future will be those who win market share, and a lot of that market share is going to become digital, if it isn’t already. The ones who survive are also going to be the PSPs who deal with specific, rich applications.”

Symington said shifts in consumer buying patterns and print buying habits has resulted in the rise of personalisation and on-demand printing.

“There is now a shift in the types of print being consumed and with that, a massive increase in the volume of jobs.

So, PSPs need to be able to handle that and must respond to a brand’s needs very quickly in today’s market,” he mentioned.

“So, targeting and personalisation is key for a customer, as is a move from the print and distribute model to distribute and print model. Digital print is key to this, allowing jobs to be routed to printers worldwide, knowing the quality will be consistent and printed as close to the end consumer as possible, which is important from an environmental standpoint.”

According to Blau, there are a few steps involved in print getting into digital

HP’s Daniel Blau addresses the changing distribution model for printers globally

HP’s Joshua Symington speaks to the specific technical and workflow solutions available

SPRINTER.COM.AU

transformation, which include: • Smart, latest equipment that can communicate in a variety of ways such as passing on information and providing feedback • Software and workflows that are integrated in order to be able to maximise efficiencies between them • As close to ‘zero touch’ as possible, which involves the use of automated systems for maximum throughput.

“For print to be ganged and batched and printed on a specific day, an automated and efficient workflow system is necessary.

It knows exactly how many jobs are coming in on any given day into a press and then makes it ready for finishing.

This goes all the way to shipping – so the process is automated from beginning to the end,” he said.

Symington said there needs to be more integration of workflow systems into local print businesses as some Australian PSPs maintain their own in-house systems.

He also finds that there is an exciting future for PSPs in labels and packaging, with personalisation still in its infancy, and mentioned that it provides opportunities for those in the long-run offset or short-run digital spaces to consolidate their workflows.

“One of our PSPs in the UK is working with Kellogg’s to create personalised cereal boxes. This isn’t your ordinary cereal boxes that you find in store – these have your picture on it and some personal information, and they get delivered to your door. So, you can imagine that when people order these online, the data needs to flow somewhere for the printer,” he said.

“They have managed that through Site Flow, where work gets automatically batched together and imposed in the cloud. It is then printed and barcoded before getting sent out.

“We’ve only scratched the surface on what this technology enables in future for brands to be able to connect with consumers, and PSPs form a crucial component in this mix.”

Blau added that the industry has reached an inflection point where the PSP needs to be accessible 24/7, with capabilities to provide clients with integrated online services.

“Digital workflow is going to be the key factor in any PSP’s model,” he said.

“You’re producing something physically that is tactile and that is the result of digital print.

“But everything that comes ahead of this, and even after it, will have to be a part of the digital process.”

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 25

LABELS

Nekkorb gets behind the GRAPHICS INDUSTRY Company brings an ethical approach to business

I

n 2009, Frank Brokken and his wife Claire set up Nekkorb Solutions to cater to the growing graphic arts industry initially in New Zealand and later Australia.

Frank had spent 33 years working for a number of top name companies such as DuPont and Morrison Printing (now Flint Inks). Always keen to learn of the latest overseas graphic technology that could improve Australasia’s printing industry, he developed a solid reputation in the industry.

Since Nekkorb’s inception, Frank’s strong associations and friendships with people and companies, have proved invaluable.

He quickly secured a group of well-known companies as his principals, possessing a firm belief, from the outset, that Nekkorb would supply only trusted, tried, and respected brands.

“We want to work with great people and companies that have great products and a commitment to a sound research and development programme,” he said.

“It sounds a little old fashioned, but we only wanted to partner with companies whose ethics fitted Nekkorb’s. This philosophy has been a testament to our continued growth and success.

“Today, Nekkorb Solutions represents a world class group of innovative and industry leading manufacturers of consumables and capital equipment for the printing industry.”

Frank describes these brands: • MPS – the manufacturer flexographic, offset, and digital hybrid label printing machines. The MPS machine range is the most advanced technology and software-based solution in the marketplace today with machines that run from roll to roll or roll to sheet.

• DuPont – flexographic printing plates and equipment. The innovator in flexo plate production, DuPont, introduced the environmentally friendly thermal plate process Cyrel Fast with thousands of installations now spread across the globe.

• SOMA – the flexographic machine leading innovator with the Optima2 platform now setting the benchmark for all other equipment manufacturers to aspire to.

• 3M – the science company that has developed world-class label materials, tapes of all types and safety and protection equipment that can be trusted.

• WINK – flexible and rotary dies that have established themselves as the industry standard. If you want a trusted and consistent brand to enhance your production room then WINK products are certainly there to do that.

• Zecher – anilox rollers for coating stations and printing machines that are serious about product consistency and lower costs. The inventor of the anilox roll more than 70 years ago.

No one has more experience and can deliver results for higher production speeds, improved productivity, and increased profits.

26 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

The Nekkorb team: (l-r) Harry Brokken, Claire Brokken, Frank Brokken, Kelly Slow, Roy Day, and Natasha Brokken

• TKM – top doctor blades with coated and uncoated edges that can defy the odds and deliver colour and production consistency.

• KTI – butt splicers, turret winders, and more. This innovative equipment can be trusted to deliver results day after day.

• X-Rite – industry leading colour measuring devices that set the standard across the world. If you want to communicate with brand owners, production plants and designers across the world, no other company can match its consistency of outcomes. The other great product that X-Rite has to offer is the Rutherford Graphic Product upgrade of older offset presses with colour management and control systems that enables them to compete productively and profitably against more modern equipment.

• Esko – integrated solutions for packaging, printing, and finishing. Esko’s Web Centre and Automation Engine enables the most advanced workflow possibilities available today.

“In the past 18 months, Nekkorb has been appointed as agent for MPS label printing machines in A/NZ and DuPont plates and equipment in New Zealand,” Frank said.

“Nekkorb has enjoyed steady growth year on year through the group of great people who comprise the Nekkorb team. Our eldest daughter Natasha (Tash) joined us in early 2012. In 2017, Kelly Slow joined us; followed by Roy Day in February 2018; and Harry Brokken in early 2019.

“Everyone at Nekkorb understands the importance of the customer, as they are our future. They make our business, and they have been the reason for its success and growth. We understand that service is a growing relationship that must be exercised every day, in every transaction.

“We never want to feel that we don’t need to improve, as I know that we do. We love the industry and we love the people that we deal with. Tash will be the future manager of the business and, with her at the helm, the future looks bright and exciting.”

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NEKKORB Solutions provides high quality products and expertise to the print industry

PRODUCTIVITY QUALITY SUSTAINABILITY

NEKKORB Solutions Limited T: +64 9 8263441 M: +64 27 7138987 (Frank) +64 21 2346124 (Roy) +64 21 423464 (Natasha) E:

info@nekkorbsolutions.co.nz

W: www.nekkorbsolutions.co.nz

SOFTWARE

Platypus installs Kodak Prinergy

WORKFLOW SYSTEM

Maximises on security, productivity and efficiency by installing Kodak Prinergy On Demand

P

latypus Print Packaging, a local printer specialising in carton production for food and beverage and pharmaceutical applications, recently became the first company within the Asia-Pacific region to upgrade to Kodak’s new cloud-based printing workflow platform, Prinergy On Demand. By upgrading from an onpremise Prinergy server to a cloud-based environment, Platypus general manager Aaron Lusch said the business has taken the necessary steps towards equipping Platypus for the future.

“We’re moving all of our business to the datacentre and a cloud-based environment, and with security becoming an increasing focus generally and for our business, we decided to install the Kodak Prinergy On Demand solution,” he said.

“It was an easy investment for us as we were at the stage where we needed to reconsider if we needed to reinvest in hardware and do what we’ve always done, or move to a cloud-based environment.

“Since going towards a cloud-based environment aligned with our strategic decisions, we decided on that direction for Platypus.

We’ve also had a great relationship with Kodak, and that made the decision to upgrade much easier.”

Lusch said the solution has worked seamlessly across the company, with no changes to operations.

“It has been much easier for us to host everything on the cloud.

There were no disruptions to our business as we upgraded to Kodak Prinergy On Demand. It has been business as usual for us following the install – the only difference is that all our data is now hosted in a cloud environment, which gives us more peace of mind,” he said.

According to Lusch, Platypus is now free from the costs and constraints of system administration because Kodak now monitors and manages its system 24/7. He added that Platypus is protected with multi-layered security as Prinergy On Demand is backed by Microsoft Azure’s $1 billion investment in security and R&D. The upgraded system also allows for virtual machines and work-in-process data to be automatically replicated to a second datacentre, allowing for quick recovery of business-critical prepress software if and when needed.

“After dealing with cyber security threats in the past, we wanted a workflow system that had all the power of our on-premise system, with even more powerful security,” Lusch said.

“Now, we no longer have to deal with upgrading our operating systems, buying and maintaining servers or fearing a security breach. Instead, we can put much more attention into ensuring we’re creating the best products for our customers.”

In addition to increased security and automatic updates, Kodak Prinergy On Demand also provides Decision Analytics that allows

28 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

printers like Platypus to access information about their business that can reveal opportunities to cut costs, streamline processes, and reduce waste. Prinergy On Demand also creates flexibility for employees to work from home, with a Virtual Desktop capability that removes the barriers associated with remote operations so prepress professionals can work from anywhere, regardless of their location and local infrastructure.

Lusch added that Kodak’s Prinergy On Demand supports Platypus’ growth plans.

“It allows us to scale our business. We don’t need to worry about buying additional hardware in future,” he said.

“The cloud is the way of the future. Businesses will be heading in that direction eventually as more cybersecurity threats arise. The cloud is the only way to ensure that our IT infrastructure is always kept up-to-date with the latest in software. While we are the first in the region to adopt the Kodak Prinergy On Demand solution, it hasn’t been a difficult pathway to navigate and I would highly recommend more businesses to jump on the bandwagon.”

Kodak vice-president of print Todd Bigger stressed the importance of software in supporting hardware, especially when it comes to the benefits that the platform provides.

“Choosing new cloud-based Prinergy On Demand means choosing peace of mind,” he said.

“Thanks to Prinergy On Demand, Platypus no longer has to worry about hackers, losing their data, costly downtime, or unexpected catastrophic events that can compromise their business or operations.”

The team at Platypus Print Packaging has been able to build its business up for growth by upgrading to Kodak Prinergy On Demand

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KODAK PRINERGY On Demand Workflow

ALWAYS ANALYZING Harness the power of your data with the industry’s first analytics-enabled workflow, built to boost your productivity while slashing turnaround times and expenses.

Find out more at kodak.com/go/maximizesecurity

Š Kodak, 2020. Kodak, Prinergy, and the Kodak logo are trademarks.

PREPRESS

ROI for a new

CTP SYSTEM

Prepress is the foundation for great print quality and determines how streamlined and efficient the print process will be

By Kodak plates and CTP product marketing manager Pam Morgan

W

ith a good prepress solution, a printer can offer quality, consistent print to customers in a timely manner at a competitive price. Workflow software is critical for saving time and reducing mistakes in prepress. The best workflow software solutions can automate manual tasks, increase productivity, improve colour and print quality, and drive out costs.

Platesetters are important for ensuring that plates are imaged accurately and get to press quickly with minimal labour and cost. Newer platesetters offer a wide choice of automation and imaging speed options, so printers can find a solution that matches the needs of their business. Plates have a big impact in the pressroom, which is where any downtime and waste can be extremely costly to a printer.

Kodak has a number of solutions that aims to produce results for prepress processes. Kodak is the only supplier worldwide to develop and manufacture an integrated solution comprised of a platesetter, plates and workflow software, backed up by responsive, expert service.

Printers can be sure of getting a one-stop CTP solution built from precisely matched components that work reliably for a very long time.

Our CTP portfolio includes a uniquely diverse range of models as well as various automation and speed options, so that printers of any size and specializing in any area are guaranteed to find a Kodak solution tailored to their needs that can be upgraded to reflect future increased productivity and efficiency.

Kodak Prinergy On Demand Workflow brings the power of Prinergy Workflow to the cloud. It helps printers reduce their IT

costs, improve productivity, protect their data and workflow against cyber attacks and natural disasters. It also helps printers analyse data to eliminate waste and grow their business.

Kodak Sonora Xtra Process Free Plates are the latest generation of process free plates, offering greater image contrast, faster imaging speeds, and more robustness. Now nearly every printer is able to reduce costs and waste and be more sustainable by removing plate processing.

The Kodak Magnus Q800 Platesetter is now the world’s fastest eight-page CTP device with the new T-speed option, which offers imaging speeds of up to 80 plates per hour. The platesetter is available with an updated Multi-Pallet Loader (MPL) that can keep up with the 80 pph speed and has a capacity of up to 3,200 plates.

All of these solutions enable printers to streamline their platemaking operations, cut labour costs and ensure a consistent, uninterrupted output of high quality pressready plates.

Printers can take advantage of a great opportunity to improve their business by moving their workflow to the cloud with Prinergy On Demand. With this combination of cloud computing and managed services, printers can eliminate

WORKFLOW SOFTWARE IS CRITICAL FOR SAVING TIME.

30 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

the cost of buying, maintaining, and administering workflow servers, and their system is protected against the growing danger of cyber crime, which can be catastrophic. Another opportunity is for printers to switch from traditional, wet processed plates to process free plates, where the cost savings are significant.

Printers who are still running older prepress systems should consider investing in CTP devices with more automation, faster imaging speeds, up-to-date hardware and software compatibility to lower operating costs.

The ROI for a new CTP system can be significant because often printers are able to replace two aging devices with one new device and still produce more plates in a shorter amount of time because of faster imaging speeds and increased automation.

New prepress equipment keeps the presses running because there is less downtime to service the equipment or replace parts. In addition, updated workflow hardware and software protects businesses from hackers and malware.

In the future, prepress will become faster and more efficient with more automated and fewer manual touchpoints for files, equipment, and plates.

With the elimination of plate processing, some printers using Sonora Plates have been able to move their platesetters onto the pressroom floor to be closer to the press, and with Prinergy On Demand, workflow operators are now able to work remotely from their homes or other sites.

Therefore, in the future as prepress becomes more automated and remote, there may not be a dedicated ‘prepress space’ at all.

SPRINTER.COM.AU

ADDING VALUE IN PRINT

The automation

OF PREPRESS

Prepress is now far more automated, allowing for maximum efficiency as they add profit to the bottom line by resolving bottlenecks and manual intervention

T

oday’s prepress sector consists mostly of file preparation and workflow, whereas it was once a multi-step mechanical process using film, scanners, step-and-repeat and exposure devices.

Such files – mostly PDF – remain as digital data now, up to the point of sending to output devices such as CtP setters, proofing devices or direct to digital presses. Prepress operators today can perform most of the old prepress functions on their computers.

Prepress houses were once separate and highly successful businesses servicing printers with film, proofs and sometimes plates. With the introduction of CtP, it has moved in-house. PostScript PDL and DTP were the cataylsts that led to this. Prepress is now far more automated with JDF/JMF integration with MIS and Web2Print systems and CIP4 output to post-press, allowing for maximum automation and efficiency.

Software, plates and platesetters are a huge part of prepress. Without software such as Adobe’s Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and PDF, and workflow such as Screen’s EQUIOS to prepare the printready files or add VDP, there is nothing to send to the CtP setters.

Screen has remained the world’s largest supplier of CtP devices in all formats – from B2 up to 48-page VLF. We do not supply printing plates as we leave that to our reseller partners such as Fujifilm, Agfa and Xing.

Screen’s prepress solutions provide a robust, efficient and well-supported (through our online Trust network

SPRINTER.COM.AU

By Screen GP Australia managing director Peter Scott

service), method to maximise press productivity – digital, offset or flexo – and can therefore add profit to the bottom line by resolving bottlenecks and manual intervention. Screen’s new generation of PlateRite thermal CtP setters use less power, are faster and have long-lasting and stable Fibre LED lasers instead of the old gas lasers.

They are very environmentally sound machines, especially when process-less plates are imaged.

The top-seller is the PlateRite HD8900N which comes in three speed versions, making up to 70 B1 (8-up) plates per hour. Screen’s EQUIOS workflow platform allows multiple different types of devices to be operated from a single user interface and includes Screen-developed innovations such as Spekta screening, output to third party POD, LabProof proofing and also EQUIOS Online

THE DESTINY OF THE REST OF PREPRESS IS PROBABLY TO BECOME MORE AUTOMATED AND ASSIMILATED INTO THE NORMAL DAY-TO-DAY RUNNING OF ANY PRINTING BUSINESS.

which connects the customer, designer and printer.

Within the prepress sphere, printers can find value in CtP as it has never been more affordable. When introduced around year 2000, CtP devices were expensive; in some cases, almost as much as the press.

Today, they are much more affordable and also more efficient and lower in cost to run. And, combining plate-supply and CtP upgrade packages from our resellers can mean that the value is outstanding.

With all printers already in prepress in one way or another, I can only say that it is important to deal with reliable suppliers who back up their products with local support. Screen has been in prepress innovation for over 70 years and we are the last of the ‘big four’ of digital prepress pioneers that saw the industry transition from analogue to digital from the 1980s and now we are part of the Industry 4.0 and IoT transition.

Precision engineering – mechanical and digital – are our hallmarks, which is why Screen is the major supplier of silicon-wafer solutions to the computer chip sector. There is a little bit of Screen in just about every electronic device made in the world. Prepress to us is an extension of this precision and also, because it is where we began before computers, the sentimental favourite within the company.

Moving into the future of prepress, plates will continue for a long time yet, so CtP devices will continue to be installed.

The destiny of the rest of prepress is probably to become more automated and assimilated into the normal day-to-day running of any printing business. In effect, it will be there and more powerful than ever – but less visible!

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 31

PREPRESS

Prepress the

GAME-CHANGER

An efficient workflow and reliable CtP system is imperative for a printing company to provide customers with efficiency improvements in the prepress process

By Agfa Oceania managing director Mark Brindley

T

he role of prepress has drastically changed over the last several years. With the levels of integration now possible – not just in prepress, but across all departments in the print shop, prepress can be the game-changer for printers to provide the highest level of service to their customers, while maintaining the highest profitability. As customers demand increasing quality on shorter lead times, an efficient workflow and reliable CtP system is imperative for a printing company to provide them with efficiency improvements in the prepress process.

Agfa offers prepress and printing systems that make commercial offset printing operations more economical, ecological and extra convenient. Apogee v12 workflow software from Agfa delivers increased automation and smooth customer interaction. It marks another step in the automation of print production.

The latest version of Agfa’s print production hub introduces new impositioning and approval functionalities, and adds a new browser-based GUI for CSRs to have control over print production. With Apogee, you control every phase of the production process from a single user interface. Even jobs that consist of multiple parts are simply processed in one flow. The latest version brings new tools, an improved performance, offered as a standalone, subscription, or cloud-based solution.

In sync with Apogee v12, Agfa has also released an update of its web-to-print software StoreFront. Version 5.6 offers additional functionality for approvals.

It features a new softproof sign-off option for customisable products and variable

data printing, which is particularly useful to avoid discussions with print buyers.

Secondly, the multi-step approval option enables the sequential approval of print files by multiple stakeholders, benefitting mainly heavy-duty users or users that need to build. In addition, StoreFront 5.6 saves its users time thanks to the autofill option for customisable products.

From entry-level platesetters to highend computer-to-plate (CtP) engines – the Avalon 8-up series of thermal platesetters for commercial printing has a best-in-class solution in store for every need.

Affordable excellence that will help commercial printing businesses thrive – that is the promise of Avalon 8-up platesetters. With their reputation for solid dependability, these CtP engines prove themselves in terms of quality, consistency and productivity, and they are sustainable to boot. Deploying Agfa’s patented cascade system, the Arkana smart plate processor saves printers both time and money, while making operations more ecological and convenient.

Agfa’s Eclipse plate is the most convenient process-free printing plate.

Eclipse eliminates the need for a processor/clean-out unit, saving printers money, maintenance time and floor space.

In addition, Eclipse is as easy to use as a conventional offset plate, combining press purity with stable image contrast and excellent scratch resistance. And it is flexible too, as it can be used with either conventional or UV inks. Eclipse complements Agfa’s offset printing plate portfolio, which meets printers’ needs in different ways.

Eclipse is part of Agfa’s ECO³ approach of sustainable innovation

32 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

(focussing on ecology, economy, and extra convenience), which encompasses hardware, software, and consumables that make prepress and printing operations cleaner, more cost effective, and easier to operate and maintain. ECO³ extends from the prepress environment into the press room. Besides our offering of chemistryfree plate technologies and eliminating waste, Agfa’s PressTune and InkTune are two software modules that allow printers to substantially improve their processes, and save a lot of money in their operations.

PressTune is a comprehensive and unique print standardisation solution that provides colour consistency and ensures that printing jobs meet ISO, G7, and client-specific standards.

InkTune is a solution that is entirely integrated into the prepress workflow.

The software works during the rendering process, ensuring that all transparencies are fixed optimally, and creates an ideal environment for the application of GCR. Agfa remains at the forefront of innovation within the industry as R&D allows us to develop and introduce new and improved products. As automation is already strategically essential for every forward-thinking company, the need for remote capabilities will grow in the future of prepress, and automation will become essential to meet demand.

Technical support will complement smarter equipment and software development with the remote operational capability. Robotics too, has found its way into prepress to streamline operations and automate plate loading in a cost-effective way – even when loading from multiple pallets into multiple CtP units and this will shape the future of prepress.

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PREPRESS

A focus on integrated

PRINT PRODUTION Modern subscription and volumebased workflow offerings make integrated workflow technology affordable to all market segments

By Heidelberg A/NZ labels and Prinect solutions sales manager Dierk Wissmann

P

repress functionality remains one important modules of an integrated print production workflow.

However, the basic prepress market focusing on just prepress functionality is under pressure in terms of volume as well as price as printers are looking for complete integrated workflows covering prepress for offset and digital printing, pressroom, finishing (including delivery), and the integration of an MIS solution.

Industry surveys indicate that investments in workflow software is a top priority for printers to boost productivity in modern print production with automated or navigated printing in digital and offset. Reliable platesetters and high-quality stable plates are required as they build the foundation for a high performance and reliable print production.

With the largest workflow R&D force in the industry, Heidelberg continues to lead with the Prinect Production Manager as the only supplier offering and continuing to develop an integrated print production workflow from prepress, press to finishing. In addition, the Prinect Business Manager can be added as a MIS solution, making the Smart Print Shop workflow complete.

Heidelberg has reacted on developments early with the Prinect offering. Today, modern subscription and volume-based workflow offerings make integrated workflow technology affordable to all market segments – from larger and smaller printers for commercial, as well as packaging and label segments.

Prepress beefs up a company’s offerings as Prinect as well as other modern prepress and workflow solution provide the required prepress functionality. The focus shifts

SPRINTER.COM.AU

more towards automation, including gang automation and customer integration via modern portal technologies.

Reducing the manual touchpoints, especially for standard jobs, is vital to stay profitable in a highly competitive market.

Best-in-class customer service with 24/7 access and high speed, and easy to work with portal and communication tools are standard functionality of Heidelberg’s Prinect Production Manager offering.

Heidelberg has led the focus on integrated print production, allowing users to store and reuse data throughout the production process. The newest development with the Prinect Production Manager brings all required software modules together into one solution.

Starting with data directly entered by the customer, an automated print production is triggered with potentially zero touchpoints in prepress. In addition, data is used to improve the sequencing of print production, significantly increasing the overall equipment effectiveness in print production as change-over times between jobs are significantly reduced.

All of this supports the required productivity increase to stay competitive.

In addition, the ability to drive offset as well as digital print production in a single job, out of the same workflow, is mandatory and a key feature of the Prinect Production Manager. This eliminates the need of two parallel workflows.

The result of an automated Smart Print Shop Production is astonishing.

In numerous cases, printers have doubled their good sheet production per hour as well as reduced costs. This has led to a significant reduction in cost per page, allowing printers to react differently

to market developments. As such, prepress offers the market value as high end print features like coating, spot varnishing and foiling provide the possibility for higher margin. They require special software tools and machines not every printer has.

But the top growth opportunity is in the packaging market segment. Even through the COVID crisis, packaging and labels continue their growth path. Modern prepress and print production workflows must allow for the easy addition of required packaging and label functionality with hardly any additional costs. This allows commercial printers to test the market and offer new products.

However, within this segment is the need to improve productivity as run lengths reduce. Thus, the functionality of a highly automated Smart Print Shop production is also required for the packaging and labels market.

The industry should also prepare itself for a future where modern prepress and print production workflow solutions support prepress operators, allowing them to eliminate simple, standard tasks which improve productivity drastically.

Prepress operators can then focus more on complex high-end print jobs, and the amount of jobs requiring manual intervention will decrease.

In addition, I expect that more of the required functionality, especially automation, will be provided by cloudbased systems using latest workflow technology in future, including artificial intelligence to further improve speeds, errorless production and costs.

Those companies that embrace the changes will be among the winners in a competitive market.

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 33

PREPRESS

Going with

THE FLOW Workflow management systems are proven to deliver many quantifiable advantages for print companies, from faster project turnaround times to improved worker morale

By Solimar Systems senior director of engagement Jonathan Malone-McGrew

T

he efficiency-enhancing benefits of workflow management systems are proven to deliver many advantages. Yet, there is no doubt that changing processes that may have been in place for many years can be daunting. Resistance to changing the prepress workflow may spring from a desire to maintain the status quo – the “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” school of thought. But more often than not it stems from genuine concerns about how the change might interrupt existing processes.

Here are the three common myths about workflow management systems and why making the switch could benefit far more than your bottom line:

Myth #1: New workflows will demotivate staff

One of the most common concerns we hear from companies who are considering upgrading to a workflow management system is how staff will react. A company’s greatest asset is its people, so it’s absolutely right that the impact of new technology on morale is considered.

However, when handled correctly, the transition to more efficient and optimised workflow tools and processes can have a hugely positive effect on staff, by freeing them from tedious manual processes and giving them opportunities to do more value-added tasks. For example, adding PDF optimisation tools such as Solimar’s ReadyPDF can shave off hours of prepress manipulation of problem files.

Myth #2: We can’t afford new commercial software Cost is, understandably, a key consideration when investing in any new

technology. However, when considering making an investment in prepress optimisation tools, it is essential to look beyond the purchase price and consider the time savings that can be achieved and the extra revenue more capacity and new services can generate.

The right workflow management solution will be able to deliver a rapid return on investment (ROI). Based on feedback from Solimar customers who engage one or more of the Solimar Chemistry platform tools, typical benefits include a reduction in job onboarding time from 20 minutes to 20 seconds.

In addition, they report increased job visibility, tracking and reporting; a reduction in the cost of storage through better archive processes and greater efficiency; as well as the added capability to accept additional work types while adding differentiated value-adds. Imagine a prepress environment where there is no need to turn away work because the customer uses a different file type than the current workflow supports!

Myth #3: New workflow software won’t be compatible with your existing systems

This is a common concern regarding workflow management systems – and it is not without foundation. Many of the software solutions on the market today rely on custom programming, requiring companies to employ highly skilled programming staff or employ the services of third-party programmers, which can be costly and may not provide the same level of responsiveness as in-house staff. This is often a deal-breaker and can negatively

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impact long-term maintenance costs.

This is why the Solimar Chemistry platform is designed to be as simple to operate as possible. It has a simple-touse interface that requires no complicated coding, enabling customers to accelerate the implementation of production changes and install new versions quickly.

Moreover, it is configurable to many different environments and market types, making it a good fit for every size company from SMB to Enterprise while sidestepping the need for custom coding.

Fuji Xerox is Solimar Systems’ main distributor for Australia. However, it can also sell directly to Australia.

Even if a company has a bespoke workflow, which many across Australia do, the Solimar solution set is easy to integrate. Solimar’s ReadyPDF will slide into any environment to start saving time, reducing storage, and solving common PDF challenges from the first day. Over time companies may even find that it will replace some of the workflow elements, eliminating the need to maintain in-house scripts and processes.

The first step to workflow optimisation

The first step to improving workflow is to understand it. Solimar Systems provides a ‘walk your workflow’ service to help companies to assess their existing processes and systems, and advises on the steps they can take to improve them.

This can be done in person or virtually through online meetings. This process helps to identify where money is being left on the shop floor and arms businesses with the knowledge to make their workflow better, faster and more competitive.

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PREPRESS

Having the right tools

FOR BUSINESS With the industry going through change, having the right set of prepress tools to deliver on market needs is necessary

T

he prepress market is faced with an industry where players are cutting costs down. In addition to that, faster use, easy and seamless integration, and versatility are just some of the main features that prepress players are increasingly looking for when it comes to picking a good prepress solution in the market. Cherri International has two separate solutions that deliver on this need – QuarkXPress and Affinity Software.

Cherri International is the sole Australian distributor for Affinity Software, Canvas X and Canvas X CADComposer, and is the co-distributor for QuarkXPress.

We supply industry standard software to printers, graphic designers, advertising agencies, architects, photographers, universities, and K12 educational.

QuarkXPress is a non-subscription alternative to Adobe software, and can be easily interfaced with new and existing equipment. Adobe software is fantastic, but the fact that it’s subscription only and costs increase every time you renew is not attractive to a printer or those in the prepress space. QuarkXPress offers a variety of features which are so much more versatile. Its interface is very clean to use and not clustered. You are able to convert a template for print over to an e-book with just a couple of clicks. You can preview online and see exactly what you are getting. You are also able to create press-ready PDFs out of the program itself.

Having the same software that does print and prepress, as well as e-books, digital and websites is a huge advantage.

The solution isn’t a cloud-based program but that’s a huge edge because it doesn’t have to sync into the cloud before you use it.

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QuarkXPress also allows conversion of InDesign files.

As for Affinity Software, it is developed

by Serif (Europe) Limited, a UK based company, established in 1987, which have developed a suite of non-subscription Adobe alternatives for PC/Mac. Affinity Software caters for the beginner or the professional. The multiaward winning software allows photo, design or publication creation whether for Facebook, LinkedIn, newsletters, brochures or books. Affinity Software is user-friendly and incorporates special effects features, such as moving people, animals and objects from a photograph.

Affinity Photo is non-subscription based software that has been described as a Photoshop alternative. It is compatible with a variety of common file formats including Adobe, Photoshop, PSD, PNG, TIFF, JPG, and GIF, amongst others.

Affinity Photo works with all photo types.

Affinity Designer is one of the fastest, smoothest, most precise vector graphic design software available. The application can create logos as well as open and edit Portable Document Format (PDF), Adobe Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator files.

Affinity Publisher is a desktop publishing application incorporating StudioLink technology.

Some of our Newspaper and Magazine Customers with QuarkXPress and Affinity include Manilla Express, Boonah Newspaper Co and East Gippsland Newspapers. And we have supplied the solutions to a number of printers too.

All of these users have mentioned a simple transition when adopting the Affinity software and the current versions of QuarkXPress software as new users,

By Cherri International proprietor and director Mark Wren

or have been using the software for a long time and have reaped the benefits of their evolving features and functionality.

But what existing users of this software need to be aware of, is that the requirements from 20 years ago are radically different to those of today.

They’re completely different as the technologies have changed since then as have the businesses themselves.

Quark 2017, for instance, gave users the ability to edit your photos. Quark purchased a company named Callas in 2018 and added that into Quark, enabling users the ability to produce press-ready PDF files straight out of the program.

I have been doing software testing for over 25 years and from a features perspective, these solutions are unrivalled.

I work with the software developers and programmers at Quark in the US and Serif in the UK. If any users contact me with ideas for upgrades in future versions, I can pass them on directly to these businesses for consideration.

This means that users get the features that they want or need more quickly, as opposed to other software, where you will have to wait longer for updates that you want because these businesses have multiple layers for approvals to go through.

In addition, these businesses do not have complex call systems or ticketing call systems, so if there are any queries or issues, there isn’t a long wait for them to be sorted. To see any printer or prepress house grow is a good sign for the industry and going through uncertain times, especially now with COVID, it’s more important than ever to be ahead of the prepress curve and have the right and necessary tools for business.

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 35

PREPRESS

A reliance on

PREPRESS

Considerable time is spent training new staff with rules-based pre-flight processes, but often the foundation of print education is lacking

By CMYKhub customer experience manager Glen Francis

P

repress has always been seen as the department of a print business where digital meets physical. For CMYKhub, we have been inching towards a more holistic approach where digital technology is utilised right throughout the supply chain, from quote to delivery.

The way we handle prepress affects the entire manufacturing process. Imposition is vital to streamlining the manufacturing, to ensure that DIFOTIS (Delivery in Full on Time in Spec), levels are met and ultimately, so is profitability.

We develop our own software to align with external prepress platforms that provides visibility on efficient manufacturing and order management.

Why such a reliance on technology?

The workforce expertise and specialisation in the prepress field have all but left the industry. The challenge CMYKhub and many of our trade partners have faced over the past five years has been employing qualified prepress operators. We spend considerable time training new staff with rules-based pre-flight processes, but often the foundation print education is lacking.

Ten years ago, there was a clear industry standard in how to supply a print ready file to a printer; however, the competitive print market has led to acceptance of any file just to win the order.

As a trade printer, CMYKhub has always required print-ready PDF files to provide seamless pre-flight, planning, imposition, plating, production and finishing.

We have spent considerable effort educating our trade partners in how to provide print ready artwork, however in recent years they have found this more difficult. Knowledgeable prepress staff

are either undervalued, unattainable, or uneconomical in today’s average print business. This has encouraged us to find low-cost solutions to help these businesses generate artwork that will pass our preflight every time. When you outsource a print job, you want to send the file and forget about it until the delivery date.

By offering a comprehensive prepress service, you reduce the annoyance of back and forward emails and phone calls explaining the artwork issues.

Software is vitally important in promoting efficiency in our business.

We rely on a number of rules-based automation features for pre-flight and imposition that allows our operators to handle thousands of files a day. This enables us to provide a daily cut-off time for file upload and we can still dispatch hundreds of orders the following day.

Without a reliable plate supply and high platesetter up-time our presses would stand still. As a gang printer, we consume a massive volume of plates and are often reminded by our supplier our use is some of the highest in the country.

It comes as no surprise that we have a close relationship with them and when we call, they answer. Twelve months ago, we developed a pay per fix service called artFIX that enabled resellers to request their file be amended to pass our pre-flight. This has been very popular, as the cost is only a small percentage of what their print order is worth. To pay a small fee to get their order onto the press quickly is a smart business decision.

CMYKhub Design Desk is a multilevel monthly subscription service for graphic design and prepress exclusively for the Australian print trade.

36 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

This was initiated to provide our trade partners with a low-cost solution to generating artwork that will always pass pre-flight. It not only reduces a number of overheads for printers, but actually allows them to do more for less.

Whilst the Design Desk concept isn’t new, the custom-built platform the service runs on is unique. Developed internally, this software has the capacity to be integrated into our Hublink software in the future. This means that our trade partners could manage their artwork and then process a print order in a simple workflow.

Online Print Management (OPM) is the other solution that we have offered for a number of years. This is a brand asset manager website that our trade partners can template their clients’ artwork. This is an easy way to ensure the artwork remains consistent and print-ready.

These solutions are filling a gap between the time when we send a quote to our customer and imposing the file to print.

They aren’t necessarily about generating revenue in that space, but about facilitating the step to ensure order.

In future, prepress will be fully integrated as part of a ‘smart factory’ model. This means connectivity and transparency feeding live data from prepress to the factory floor and back. This information provides metrics for staff and automated software to optimise on the go to keep the business completely agile.

Automation is not new in prepress, but it is a perfect way to manage a number of standardised products to ensure consistency and efficiency – anything we can write rules for in regards to size or finishing can be automated with software to assist in imposition.

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SEVEN OVER 70 T O C O M M E M O R A T E A P ’ S 7 0 T H A N N I V E R S A R Y, WE LOOK AT THE JOURNEYS OF SEVEN PRINT VETERANS OVER THE AGE OF 70 AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LOCAL INDUSTRY

SEVEN OVER 70

A long-standing PRINT CAREER Neil Mulveney built the successful business of Champion Press in the ‘50s, which was eventually sold to Hannanprint in February 1987 Neil Mulveney’s interest in print started when he was just 11 years of age

N

ow in his early ‘90s, Neil Mulveney has had a longstanding career while he was in print. Back then, the industry piqued his interest when, at the age of around 11 years old, he delivered ‘copy’ to E. Angelo & Sons, commercial printers in Campsie, on behalf of his late mother.

Fascinated that the ‘copy’ he dropped off returned a few days later as a printed result, Mulveney got ‘hooked in’ to the concept of printing. When he turned 19, his late brother purchased an ADANA Hobby Printing Press from Anthony Hordern and Sons.

At that time, Mulveney was as a salesman with a soft goods and furnishing warehouse in Sydney.

“I had always been very interested in printing. I began producing social printing, whilst still employed, then moved into business stationery. I then decided to resign my job in sales and made printing my new career,” he said.

“From a garage in the back yard of my parents’ home, I began trading as Dalnor Press (my brother Ronald’s name, backwards).

This, was the beginning of what was to become Champion Press.”

Mulveney’s business quickly outgrew the garage and was moved to a shop and dwelling on Stanmore Road, Petersham, in 1954. He acquired his first Heidelberg press, a 10 by 15-inch platen – a giant platen for its time – a small Heidelberg cylinder press, and his first KORD offset press.

The business was there for seven years before it moved to Marrickville, when he purchased another KOR offset press, then a single colour Heidelberg RON offset press. In 1968, Dalnor Press bought out the Langlea Printery, which was located in St Peters, and combined the two plants into the Langlea premises. Champion Press was founded as a result, in 1967.

“We built on the business of Champion Press. We moved again in 1975; land was acquired in Campsie and a new purpose built building was constructed. By now, the company had become a Roland house, with Favorits, both single and two colour, Rekord in single colour, and a four colour Parva. We also had a Muller Martini binding line, Stahl folders, and a Polar guillotine,” he said.

Mulveney attended his first drupa in 1967, and continued to do so until 2004.

“That very first trip overseas opened my eyes to a whole new world – not just in printing, but a vision for my life. In 1987, I visited the US with a view to purchase a narrow web Harris M110

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five colour web offset press. This was the beginning of a whole new phase for the business as we could then print both sides of the sheet simultaneously, dry it, and fold it, ready for the finishing processes.

For me, this was the beginning, of creating ‘in-line’ finished products,” he said.

The business grew rapidly and it was necessary to move once more. Mulveney purchased five acres of land at Minto, and an 80,000-square foot complex was created. Another Harris M110 was also installed.

“These presses were very hungry and needed supporting equipment. There were products that I had seen in the US for this, but were unavailable here in Australia as it was a much smaller market. This led us to build our own equipment,” Mulveney said.

“The manufacturing of our own equipment was largely the result of David Llewellyn, our technical director. He was an English man who had been attracted to this country. How very fortunate were we that he joined Champion Press.

“We were also fortunate to have Doug Alexander join Champion Press as sales director and his skills, together with a team under his direction, were able to generate the sales required.

They were selling products, that had never been seen in this market, made in-line. Without the sales and marketing approach of Doug and his team, we would not have survived.”

As the printing industry has always been known to be capital intensive, Mulveney added that forming a close relationship with UDC (United Dominions), which worked closely with the printing industry, led to Champion Press’ finance of equipment.

“The NSW manager, Brian Chittenden, was of great assistance to us over many years. Without his able assistance, we would not have arrived where we did,” Mulveney said.

At the start of 1987, Champion Press was approached by Hannanprint and got acquired by the latter in February that year.

“We could not have had a better outcome. The summation of the work of many paid off. The Hannan family were outstanding to deal with, and very accommodating to our staff,” Mulveney said.

At almost 92 years of age, Mulveney still has great affection for the trade.

“I am more than pleased that I am no longer in business. Like many of my contemporaries, I’ve had the best years in print. I now fill my days very well with hobbies and old friendships,” he added.

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ONE-STOP SHOP

SEVEN OVER 70

Building a family

BUSINESS

Richard Downie has built a strong print business at Kosdown Printing with hard work, honesty, and good service as its pillars of strength Richard Downie started Kosdown Printing to give his family a better life in Australia

R

ichard Downie is a name that many in the industry know.

Currently aged almost 82, he started Kosdown Printing in late 1981 and together with his family, has built the business into a state-of-the-art pre-press, digital printing, production and mailing house.

Having been in operation for almost 40 years, the business is now run by his children – Derek Downie, David Downie, and Sandra Downie – while Richard is semi-retired.

Richard, together with his wife Maureen and three children, were Scottish immigrants. Having immigrated to Australia in 1966, he first worked in the steel industry in Sydney and lived in an immigration hostel for the first two years.

“I arrived from Scotland with my wife, three kids – Derek was seven years old, David was five and Sandra was just six months old – and two suitcases. I had a young family, so I was always looking for a better job to better provide for them,” Richard said.

Richard heard that the pay was slightly better in Melbourne so he made the move with his family and got a job in a printing company as a labouring assistant on a printing press. That was his first foray into the print world. He then became a guillotine operator at another printer even though he had no guillotine experience.

“I moved around in a few jobs and also juggled part-time jobs – I used to be a cleaner at night after fulfilling my duties at my day job to make ends meet. My wife had a part-time job at a dry cleaner’s before she worked full-time at a factory. We both had ambition to create a better life for our family,” he said.

Richard then landed a job at Bradford Printing as a guillotine operator and moved up the ranks into production, then manager.

“I was working eight to 12 hours a day and was there for 10 years before Maureen got homesick and we decided to move back to Scotland. I worked at a paper mill in Scotland, working night shifts. But not long after, we decided to return to Australia as that wasn’t the life for us,” he said.

Richard returned to the same role at Bradford Printing, where he was for another 10 years, before ambitiously deciding to strike out on his own and start Kosdown Printing in 1981.

He partnered with a colleague, Kosta Petratos, and with both their holiday payouts combined, opened up the new company in the suburb of Richmond – ‘Kos-down’ is a conjunction of their names.

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It was a family affair from the start. Parents and children put their houses up as collateral to get the business going. After two years in the business, Petratos decided to be bought out as an owner but continued on with Kosdown as a full-time staff for another 25 years before his retirement.

“The early days at Kosdown were hard. The first press that we got was a two-colour, second hand Dominant press. We couldn’t afford a folding machine or anything else so had the kids in after school to give us a hand. They were involved in the business from the start even though they ended up working in independent jobs for a while,” Richard said.

“But they all ended up working at Kosdown, along with Maureen and my nephew, who I brought from Scotland to Australia 28 years ago when he was just 18. Now, three of my grandsons are in the business full-time too.”

Kosdown had in place a barter-trade arrangement with its then neighbour, Debden Diaries, to provide the company with paper in exchange for some office furniture. The company grew thanks to word of mouth and the opportunity to rent a part of Debden Diaries’ facility in Port Melbourne arose.

“I was going to go half with Debden Diaries in exchange for print, but that deal fell over and it never eventuated. We still took the plunge and moved in,” Richard said.

That was almost 35 years ago. At the end of 2012, the firm relocated to Rocklea Drive.

Then Maureen’s health took a turn in 2014, so Richard semiretired to spend time with his wife and the company relocated to its new home on the other side of Port Melbourne. Derek, David and Sandra have led the business since.

“The principles at Kosdown today are the same as what it was yesterday – it was (and still is) all about hard work and honesty.

It’s also about providing good service,” he said.

“Within the business, my children always kept me up-to-date with the latest in technology and we always made the investment if there was room for efficiencies. I never worried about what anyone else was doing.

“My motivation has always been my family, and over time, my long-term clients and staff have become like family too. Kosdown, to others, may just be a company name but to me, it’s a member of my family.”

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SEVEN OVER 70

Driven by great

AMBITION Robert McMillan had a vision for growing JS McMillan Printing, which was started by his father, and pursued his dreams

Back in the day, Robert McMillan grew his father’s business into a print conglomerate

N

o real introduction is required for Robert McMillan, aged 77, who grew his family business of JS McMillan Printing into one of the stronger companies in Sydney until finally being bought out

by Blue Star (now IVE).

JS McMillan Printing began with Stewart McMillan (Robert’s father) who was a solo operator.

Robert McMillan began his career at the tender age of just 14, when he entered the industry doing an apprenticeship.

“My father had a printing business and back in the day, I went to a selective high school but I wasn’t allowed to go on and further my studies because he had arranged for me to become an apprentice printer. That’s how it was in those days – your parents make the decisions for you,” Robert said.

He then went on to serve his apprenticeship as a letterpress printer at Kenmure Press (Offset Alpine) for five years.

“Back in those days, it involved a lot of hard work. It was a big printery – probably one of the biggest printeries in Australia – and involved leading-edge technologies. It was very interesting for me, as an apprentice, to explore all these new technologies,” he said.

From there, Robert joined his father and brother at JS McMillan Printing, which was operating out of Sydney’s western suburbs in NSW. “That was 70 years ago when I joined them in the business.

My father was very old-fashioned in his approach and I was very anxious to grow the company,” he mentioned.

“So, in 1973, I did my first takeover – I bought a company named William Andrews Printing Company, which was one of the oldest printing companies in Sydney at that time. That business was bigger than ours but I was persistent.”

With a desire to expand the business across Australia, he went on to acquire about 30 companies, mostly in the Western district of Sydney. All of those businesses were combined into one.

“I wanted to grow the business by acquisition and learnt to do it; I had very good advisors that helped me. There were a lot of failures in the printing industry and I had worked out how to buy those companies and amalgamate them into ours and keep growing,” Robert said.

As the business grew, Robert invested in real estate to house all of the acquired businesses.

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“I also sidelined into the nursery business for a period of time, and also bought a famous chain of music shops called Edels but then got rid of those and concentrated more on the printing company,” Robert said.

Shortly after, he launched a takeover bid for a company in Queensland, Inprint, but got thwarted in that takeover by Michael Hannan, who was the executive chairman of IPMG (now a part of Ovato).

“I did a full takeover bid for that company and did all the paperwork but Michael came in over the top and outbid me at the last moment,” he said.

Investigating new horizons, Robert then became instrumental in moving the business towards and pioneering in the printer-led model of print management.

“We were bidding on contracts to grow that side of the business and by chance, we bid with Spicers on the paper side of a big contract. And Andrew Price, who saw our ideas, went off and started brokerage company Stream,” Robert said.

“I used to encourage other printers to go into print management but nobody really understood it so the brokerage side of things started to get a hold. And these brokerages messed things up for the traditional printing and manufacturing companies.”

Leading on from that, Robert bought a 50 per cent share in Scanlan Printing in Queensland and a 50 per cent share in Pirie Printers in Canberra.

His daughter, Julie-Anne, then joined the business and they forged ahead in the eCommerce space having seen the potential of the Internet.

The company continued its growth with Robert at the helm until about 15 years ago when he had to have a liver transplant.

Robert then decided that it was best for his health to retire and put his business up for sale.

“We had four people bidding for the business and it got sold to Champ Equity that also owned Blue Star. This happened in 2007, just six weeks before the stock market crashed,” Robert added.

Since retiring, Robert has been involved in his real-estate portfolio and mentoring a number of younger people in business.

He also sits on the board of not-for-profit integrated cancer treatment centre, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, which he helped raise money to build.

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 41

SEVEN OVER 70

An evolving career

IN PRINT

Arthur Frost had no experience in print when he entered the industry, but has since become a key pillar of The Lamson Group Arthur Frost stumbled into print by chance but his passion for the trade grew over time

A

rthur Frost is no stranger in the print industry. At the age of 77, he is still involved in the The Lamson Group as chairman, even though he has semi-retired.

Frost embarked on his career in print after stumbling into it by chance. After being homeless as a young man, his first job was with the Commonwealth Bank, which was not conducive with his ambition to be a licensed bookmaker.

“My father passed on when I was three years old but he had been a bookmaker, so that had always stuck in my mind,” he said.

Frost then left the bank and got his bookmaker’s license, but needed a steady income.

“I applied for a number of roles as a sales representative, across a variety of industries, and that’s when the original business of Lamson Paragon Business Forms Printers offered me the job. That was when I first entered into print – purely by chance,” he said.

“I didn’t know anything about print at that time but I learnt plenty from the business – it was a leader in its field and was quite entrepreneurial and innovative. It was a wonderful learning curve for me initially and I worked with a lot of good people. It laid the foundation in terms of the knowledge and desire that I wanted to get from the print world.

“They saw fit to give me a couple of promotions in a few years and that took over my life. I moved from Sydney to Melbourne to take over one of the sales regions, then moved me from Melbourne to Perth to take over state responsibilities, then moved back from Perth to Melbourne into a marketing role.”

Whilst in Perth, a Canadian company, Moore Business Forms, took over Lamson Paragon Business Forms Printers worldwide.

“At that point in time, the Americans got more involved. I was well into the industry. In 1981, I bought a subsidiary off the old Lamson Paragon called Control Systems Tickets because the Americans only wanted to be in Business Forms,” Frost said.

“That is when I, together with my family, moved back from Melbourne to Sydney. At Control Systems, there were many memorable moments but the most memorable was in 1988 – we were the first manufacturer of magnetic stripe tickets in Australia.

At that time, Korea had put a new transport system in to Seoul for the Olympic Games, which used magnetic stripe tickets. After the games, I went to Seoul armed with pre-encoded tickets. They asked if they could send a contingent of people to Australia to view our

42 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

operation. Our ‘operation’ was in a Nissen Hut in the munitions area of St Mary’s. I was extremely embarrassed when I got a call from Canberra asking me if they could join me to welcome the Korean delegation. Imagine a cavalcade of cars going from Mascot to St Mary’s to look inside a Nissen Hut.” Frost was also involved in bringing EFTPOS to Australia via a public company called EFTECH. Soon after, when the sales team of the then Moore Paragon company wanted to start their own print broking companies but had few printers that they considered trustworthy to buy off, Frost resurrected the Lamson Paragon brand to service printers, print brokers, mailing houses, and copy shops. The reborn Lamson Paragon business was registered in 1983 and started trading on 1 August 1990.

“A lot of the sales people who had worked with me previously had joined the broking business in print and I became a trusted partner in manufacturing. That catapulted me back into the print environment,” Frost said.

“We grew the business with a bit of luck and a lot of energy.

I grew it from nothing as we had very little money. Back when the business started, we only had a processor which turned paper rolls into continuous paper and our first printing press was a two-colour Ryobi pack-to-pack press.”

As the business grew, it added on three other business entities through the years – Paper Rolls Australia, Cheque-Mates, and Integrated Office Solutions. The business expanded its footprint to the Philippines, giving Australian businesses the chance to setup teams in Manila. The group now employs about 160 people and owns over 50 pieces of equipment, which includes 11 web presses, across its seven facilities.

“I don’t have the personality where I could sit down and do nothing. My son, Rodney, runs the business with me now. He does all the strategy and technical stuff while I back the team up with my experience and knowledge,” he mentioned.

Frost has been recognised with multiple awards in the industry for his efforts, including the PIAA (now PVCA) Legend of Print Award in 2016.

But his passion for print isn’t the only one that drives him – his love for the races hasn’t dwindled all these years.

“I have a brood mare, so I breed one race horse a year. My interest in the races went with me through my life,” he added.

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SEVEN OVER 70

Rising up to CHALLENGES Terry Mulcahy may have left the print space but he still holds on the values that he believed in during his time in the industry Print has always been near and dear to Terry Mulcahy, even after he exited the industry

T

erry Mulcahy is a person that has always taken challenges in stride. He was involved in the printing industry from 1963, working for a number of supplier companies, up until 2008 and saw the industry through a spectrum of changes.

Mulcahy left school when he was 15 and first joined Alex Cowan Pty Ltd – a paper merchants and manufacturing stationers company that also sold printing machines and printing supplies.

“I commenced work there as office boy and because I came from a technical school background, I became interested in the machinery side of the business. I had to wait for many months for a position to become available in the machinery division, which eventually it did, and I then commenced as an internal sales clerk. After a number of years, I advanced to become a sales representative for the company,” Mulcahy said.

“Printing, back in those days, was a craft. To see what people could produce and the work that got produced was amazing.

I partook in a number of courses at the Melbourne College of Printing and Graphic Arts, which was a great learning establishment. Most of my knowledge of printing came from attending the college.”

Mulcahy moved on from Alex Cowan in 1975 to join Sidney Cooke Limited. He worked in the company’s Melbourne office before relocating to its then newly-established Townsville office in North Queensland in 1979.

“Sidney Cooke decided to open a branch in North Queensland, based in Townsville, and I got the position. I was in charge of business in Townsville, travelling down south as far as Mackay, north to Cairns, and out west to Mt Isa,” he recalled.

After six years in Townsville, he returned to Melbourne in 1986 and was still with Sidney Cooke until 1990, when he joined Dai Nippon Ink and Chemicals.

“In 2008, I was still very much involved in the printing supplies business. That was roughly when the ‘big change’ came about with the introduction of digital printing. At that time, I was still working for Dai Nippon Ink and Chemicals, but with all those changes happening in the industry, I was made redundant,” he said.

“My expertise in the printing industry wore out and I was offered an opportunity in the garden and landscaping industry – my brother and his wife own the business that I joined, and am still working for, and my experience in sales appealed to them.

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“Even though I have left printing, I still have a great passion for it and have many friends in the industry. I also still read Australian Printer today to keep myself updated on the latest industry news.”

Mulcahy said when he started work, the industry was dominated by letterpress and with that came hard and heavy work to produce four-colour process blocks out of metal.

From there, through the ‘70s, he said there was an explosion in the advancement of offset printing.

Going into the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, he mentioned that there was a shift in the industry towards multi-colour machines – from two to four colour, all the way up to 10-colour machines.

“On just about every corner, there was a multi-colour press. At that stage, Australia was leading the world in printing. The work that was produced was magnificent and we were right to the fore.

I certainly did see the whole spectrum in my time,” he said.

“Moving over to digital was one of the biggest challenges for me, but that challenge was taken from me as I left the industry in its infancy. If I had stayed on in the business, I would have taken up the challenge but that wasn’t to be.”

To date, Mulcahy finds that opening the Townsville office for Sidney Cooke was one of his greatest achievements.

“I took it from a vacant factory to growing it to a branch that had so much business throughout North Queensland. Those were the best years of my life selling printing machinery and printer supplies,” he mentioned.

Regardless of the industry he has been in, Mulcahy stressed the importance of customers and said businesses and executives need to be honest in business.

“Customers are the most important to business. There has to be a partnership and trust between two parties, otherwise nothing will work. That has been my ethos all the way through and has paid me well for 50 years,” he said.

Currently 73 years of age and living in Victoria, Mulcahy thinks of age as just a number.

“I want to keep going and working for as long as I can. I have and I still do love helping people and that’s what drives me every day,” he added.

Apart from working in the landscaping business, Mulcahy is also currently the President of the Balnarring Picnic Racing Club, run under the auspices of Racing Victoria.

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 43

SEVEN OVER 70

A deep-rooted passion

FOR PRINT Neil Mackay has been a visionary – keeping ahead of changes in the industry and in technology, and shaping his business to suit

Neil Mackay built the business of Clark & Mackay with developments in print technology

H

aving been in the printing industry since he was about 17 years old, Neil Mackay (now aged 72) had large shoes to fill at Clark & Mackay since his grandfather and father both ran the business in their tenure. Mackay not only stood up to the challenge, but also delivered, building Clark & Mackay to the forward-thinking business it is today.

Clark & Mackay has a rich family history of 92 years in print.

Starting in 1928 at premises in the heart of Brisbane, Bert Clark and John Mackay commenced their printing business producing print with wooden type, each word being composed one letter at a time using hand-fed and foot powered printing presses.

After WWII, John’s son Ian Mackay joined the firm, along with his brother, Garth Mackay, and over the years, changed the process of printing by going from only letterpress machines to offset printing machines. In the ‘60s Clark & Mackay moved premises to West End, housing five letterpress machines and one offset press, with no bindery equipment.

In 1964, Ian’s son Neil Mackay joined the firm as an apprentice letterpress and offset printing machinest. Ian’s other son Ross Mackay joined the firm in 1969 as an apprentice compositor, which led Clark & Mackay to the transition of hand set type and hot metal composition to computers and digital printing.

“I used to help out when my father was running the business and from a young age, I thoroughly enjoyed print. I’ve always wanted to be a printer and that’s what I ended up doing. It has been 56 years since and I’ve loved every moment,” Neil said.

“I started off doing an apprenticeship for five years learning letterpress and I then did an extra course in offset printing because it was just being introduced. I worked in the factory and after a few years, became foreman of the factory, running about 20 staff.

“After a few years, I moved into sales and built the business.

I moved into estimating once we had more sales representatives and with time, I ended up running the business.”

In the ‘70s, the purchase of Coronation Press produced a rapidly growing firm. In 1994, the business moved to Rocklea, quadrupling the size of Clark & Mackay. In 1997, Neil’s son Paul Mackay joined the firm as an apprentice machinest, marking the fourth generation of Mackays. During this time, the purchase and integration of Leader Press (the printing arm of the Catholic Church) further developed Clark & Mackay.

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“Clark & Mackay used to help Coronation Press with work that it couldn’t do. So, when the owner was moving back to Sydney, he approached my father to take over the business,” Neil said.

“As for Leader Press, we were approached by the business as well and we put forth the proposition. The owners picked us as they were a Christian organisation and knew that we’d take care of their staff. The acquisition of both companies let us gain more clients and equipment, which led to more business – they were a good complement to Clark & Mackay.”

New state-of-the-art digital presses were introduced in 2002, which enhanced the capabilities of Clark & Mackay as digital technology emerged. 2008 brought a change as Ross Mackay retired to take up his vocation as a minister in the Uniting Church.

So, in 2014, Neil relocated the business from Rocklea to a more modern establishment at Acacia Ridge. With the upgrade of machinery and technology at these premises, Clark & Mackay was at the forefront of all facets of print media, including digital printing and variable data, and in producing self-published books.

“We kept abreast with what was happening in modern times and that kept us successful as a small business over the years. We always listened to what our clients wanted, kept a keen eye on what was happening in the industry, and did our due dilligence on what equipment would be most suitable for us to stay ahead of the game,” Neil added.

“We were also always honest with clients, offered good service, and provided quality products.”

As of November 1, Clark & Mackay has come under the ownership of Queensland independent book publisher, Ocean Reeve Publishing, with no changes to the name of the business or staffing – apart from Neil’s retirement from his role. Neil said he still intends to continue in print in a consultancy role, including the new owners of Clark & Mackay as and when required.

“Ocean Reeve Publishing is continuing the name and legacy of Clark & Mackay. They’re staying in the same building and keeping my staff who have been with me for a long time. The acquisition of Clark & Mackay will be a value-add to what they do. I’m happy it has turned out this way,” he said.

“I had no interest in retiring before, but it had to happen sometime. In the new year, I intend to do some voluntary charity work – I want to give back to society and help where needed.”

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SEVEN OVER 70

Pushing the boundaries

OF SUCCESS Keith Ferrel has persevered with his goals and aims and has helped build a successful business in Cactus Imaging

Dedication to his business and customers is what keeps Keith Ferrel going

H

aving recently turned 70 this year, Keith Ferrel is known in the industry for being an innovator in print and is said by many to have relished the opportunities for change and growth within the print industry. Ferrel, who is the general manager of operations at Cactus Imaging, founded the business alongside Warwick Spicer in 1992. Ferrel was 41 years of age and Spicer, 52 years of age then and they both pioneered large format digital print in Australia and New Zealand.

“Warwick was the CEO of New Zealand Newspapers and I was the sales and marketing director of Auckland Star. He came in one Friday and said ‘I’m quitting and so are you, and on Monday we’re starting a printing business’. And I said, ‘Well, what do you know about printing?’ to which he replied ‘As much as you – nothing’.

For me, it was a huge jump from sales and marketing to go into print,” Ferrel said.

“Warwick had been in Germany and seen an electrostatic printer and said that’s the way the future is going to go.”

Both Ferrel and Spicer then bought an electrostatic printer and started a print shop in New Zealand. For the first few months, they endeavoured to make a mark in the New Zealand print market as technology was moving away from analog to digital.

“We’ve come up through an era where we were never involved in any analog or screen printing. We bypassed all of that.”

The duo then saw an opportunity to expand into Australia, so gave themselves 12 months to beef up the New Zealand office with staff before making their move.

“When we got here, we worked out of our units the first 12 months, then moved to a serviced office in North Sydney. We were selling here, printing them in New Zealand, them couriering them back here. In 1995, we were selling here and printing in New Zealand more than we were selling and printing in New Zealand itself,” he said.

As a result, in 1996, Cactus Imaging set up its first production plant in Australia and in four years, grew to hire about 40 people.

“We saw further opportunities printing billboards and bigger prints because only MMT was producing billboards in Australia then. So, we ended up buying a solvent printer and our printer buying spree began and the rest became history,” Ferrel said.

After Ferrel helped get its Australian operations on its feet, he became instrumental in the business’ launch of a branch in

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India in 2000, driven by Warwick and Dan (our partner in the US). Cactus has since sold its Indian subsidiary but Ferrel said he has always been driven by technological changes in the industry.

“We kept reinvesting in the business; we weren’t just satisfied with staying in New Zealand. We wanted to expand our horizons.

The timing was perfect as the industry was also seeing many technological changes at that time,” he mentioned.

“While people were struggling and not spending a lot of money, we were. We mortgaged everything we had, got our hands on every credit card known to man and got through it that way. There were times when Warwick and I would go without any money so that we could pay our staff.”

An advocate for taking risks, Ferrel mentioned that nothing has been too much of a challenge for him.

“We made a conscious decision in 2006/7 to diversify rather than just be known as just a billboard printer. We bought the right technology, so it gave us a greater scope of delivering on market needs. We’ve spent a lot of money on automation as well and that has improved our print accuracies, productivity, efficiencies, time to market, and reduced manpower, especially within the finishing part of the business,” he said.

“If you don’t take risks, you’re going to be left behind. You’ve got to try and lead the market. We’ve made mistakes too, but if you’re not trying you won’t learn from those mistakes,” he said.

His perseverance has also led to Cactus Imaging being the first printer in the world to create fully recyclable printed billboards.

“If you’re printing what you were printing a year ago, you’re not making progress. You’ve got to keep improving what you’re doing.

If you’re not aware of what advancements are happening in the world, you’re never going to learn or improve,” he said.

Ferrel is globally recognised as a leader in his field, having been awarded the Fespa World Printer of the Year in 2014. He also sits on the Dscoop Global board as well as the Dscoop APJ board, and the Fespa Australia boards.

“I haven’t thought of slowing down; I’m enjoying it far too much at the moment. I truly enjoy the people and clients that I work with, so that keeps me going,” he added.

“Our dedication to our clients and forever trying to put up the best product available is what people can expect from us and what we at Cactus Imaging will continually strive to do.”

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FELLMAN

The physics of

printing sales

A

lot has been written about the psychology of selling over the years, but not so much about the physics. And that is unfortunate, because there are certain physical laws that apply to the challenges of gaining and keeping customers.

The better you understand these “immutable laws of physics” the more likely you and your salespeople are to have success at meeting your sales-building challenges. And it turns out that the same physics applies to sales management.

First Law

Understanding the physics of sales management starts with an understanding of Newton’s First Law of Motion – sometimes referred to as the “law of inertia” – which is usually stated in this way: An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

Here is how Newton’s First Law applies to sales management. Your salesperson is the “object” and your objective is to keep him/her in motion – prospecting, following up with both prospects and customers, educating, seeking out new opportunities and providing both customers and prospects with new ideas.

A salesperson in motion tends to stay in motion, or to put that another way, top achievers build up some level of momentum and then keep it going – unless they are acted upon by an unbalanced force.

What might that be? The most common negative forces I see affecting this kind of positive momentum are printshop owners and production problems.

Far too many owners become impediments to their salespeople’s success by de-motivating them, with examples of this ranging from the compete absence of management to rather extreme levels of

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The better you understand these “immutable laws of physics” the more likely you are to have success at meeting your sales-building challenges and sales management

Scientific formulas and calculations aren’t just for physics and mathematics; they relate to the physics of printing sales as well

micro-management and what I can only describe as “pettiness” about commissions, expenses, and other compensation issues.

Beyond that, the most common complaint I hear from salespeople is that production problems regularly cost them opportunities with prospects and stress their relationships with customers.

And while I know that at least some of what I am hearing is simply “it’s not my fault” complaining from underachievers, the sheer volume of complaint seems to indicate that at least some of it is real.

As the owner/sales manager, you are the “unbalanced force” and you definitely want to use this power to stimulate motion. Be careful, though, to provide motivation rather than de-motivation.

You have the power to push an underperformer into motion, which stands to produce the results you are looking for.

Remember, though, you also have the power to push a solid performer off-track.

Second Law

The “power to push” takes us to Newton's Second Law Of Motion, which is usually stated this way: The acceleration of an object as produced by a net force is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object (I apologise, but that is exactly what it says in the “basic physics” textbook I used to do my research for this column).

Newton’s Second Law can also be expressed by the equation F = M x A, or Force equals Mass times Acceleration.

Here’s what his means to you as a sales manager. The farther behind your expectations your salesperson is, the harder you have to push just get him/her into motion. In other words, poor performers need more management.

Third Law

Newton's Third Law of Motion tells us that, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton’s Third Law seems to explain why most salespeople push back at perceived micro management.

The secret to using Newton’s Third Law of Motion as a sales management tool is to have a frank conversation with your salesperson. “I am going to push you to do the things that will make you successful,” you might say, “and you have to make a choice about how to respond to that. You can resist, and continue to do things your own way, or you can channel the energy you might have used to push back at me and simply do what I want you to do”.

I would probably add: “Please make your choice NOW!” There must always be urgency when dealing with an underperformer. Here’s a closing thought for today. No one has ever died from too much sales management, but far too many printing salespeople have underperformed because they didn’t get enough.

Dave Fellman is the president of David Fellman & Associates, Raleigh, NC, US, a sales and marketing consulting firm serving numerous segments of the graphic arts industry.

Contact Dave at dmf@davefellman.com.

Visit his website at www.davefellman.com.

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 47

REAL MEDIA COLLECTIVE

Navigating through a pandemic If a retailer is solely focused on stabilisation now and plans to prepare for the rebound later, it will likely be too late

O

nline shopping to online retailing, pandemic lockdowns, second wave uncertainty, and recession periods stalling spending are difficult enough to navigate.

Add to that cyber scepticism and digital sameness, the result is that we live in a rare time that is filled with challenges. And as more pressure than ever is applied on retailers to perform, never more pressure has there been for marketers to get their media mix and brand equity right.

Here is some research and information to assist in your discussions with your print media clients, in navigating through a pandemic and the role print will play in this journey:

1. Online retailing needs more physicality

Boston Consulting Group reported that online retailing is here to stay with one in three consumers stating they will continue online shopping. This places brands in a new position as they look to the cost of physical stores and how to manage a new approach to retail. ‘Dark stores’ for online shopping is a new reality and as retailers move into a new era of online shopping, they need to determine how they will maintain their physical brand presence.

This is the role print will play with online becoming the interface, as print media makes a resurgence to create the ‘real’ to their 100 per cent ‘virtual’ presence.

Physical stores are expensive and as retailers become either part-time or pure-play e-commerce participants, they will need to ensure their marketing mix includes well-designed catalogues, brochures, magazines and print media solutions to allow their products to be more vivid, tactile and memorable.

The potential results from getting this right, according to a study completed by the Harvard Business Review, will deliver “increased customer involvement, loyalty and sales” all without the geographical constraints and expenses of large stores.

2. Recession-proofing a customer’s brand

Online retailing and physical branding is not all that is at stake; there is a threat of not preparing for the post-recession period and brands must be cautious to not miss the boat and stay too silent.

Mark Ritson, marketing extraordinaire, recently warned brands that sitting in ‘freeze mode’ is a ‘big mistake’ and believing a sudden ramp up will bring you to where you need to be as the COVID bubble bursts will not work.

He further warned that brands that ‘completely switch off’ channels that worked for their brand pre-COVID will take a year to catch up, versus others that have remained a stable presence.

We’ve seen this before from pre- and post-GFC analysis of media investment.

Within four weeks of the end of the GFC, catalogue volumes increased by 8.64 per cent and remained at those high levels for a decade.

Roy Morgan analysis of all media over the past seven years sees catalogues as the only channel to have achieved an increase in investment. This channel and the postGFC investment has a purpose – to push the shoppers’ attention back to the brands they had forgotten. This highlights that brand presence is critical.

Stability is key for brand recall, frequency and engagement. Dropping advertising investment now will move brands to the end of the line. Now is all about owning, if not improving, brand presence and market share – printers must engage all clients and share this valuable knowledge to stablise volumes to the future whilst also stabilising their customers brand awareness.

3. Don’t be vanilla

Line up competitive retailers’ Facebook pages and the only thing that distinguishes which brand we are engaging with is the logo in the top left corner. This may work for start-ups, however established brands are simply falling into brand blandness

48 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

and losing identity – fast. It’s because of this that major brands are pulling out – Twitter is 22 per cent down in ad revenue and Unilever, Starbucks, CocaCola, Microsoft and more have formed an alliance to pull back from Facebook and Instagram because they are losing brand control politically and creatively.

Some retailers – grocery, office supplies, home furniture and others – are enjoying record sales within the COVID bubble, however are also at risk of brand erosion as they jump into digital channels that do little to maintain market-share.

Peter Field, global advertising effectiveness guru, highlighted shorttermism which originated in the digital age. However, this was accelerated by the financial crisis and furthered again during the current global pandemic.

To illustrate the dangers of shorttermism, Field stated that brands that invest solely in short-term sales activation will pay a critical price of ‘irrelevance’ once they go too far and consumers ‘forget’ or become ‘uninspired’ by the brand they once loved and engaged with loyally.

Long-termism must not be left behind and is even more critical if digital replaces all other interactions – such as online retailing, physical media and creativity – and becomes the retailer’s holy grail in delivering a tactility to strengthen and build brand presence.

4. Be responsible with data ‘Big brother’ is an increasing irritation to the data hungry retailer.

Those collecting customer data through loyalty programs, digital catalogues, online ordering or emails understand data analytics can be powerful.

However, are Australian consumers ready for a 100 per cent switch?

Australians have been recently encouraged for the sake of them and their families’ health to download the COVID Safe app, but only 6.2 million have done so. With such a strong motivational driver, such as your personal health, not being enough to

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REAL MEDIA COLLECTIVE

As more pressure is applied on retailers to perform, never more pressure has there been for marketers to get their media mix and brand equity right

trigger action, how can brands expect their digital partnering with consumers to be a stronger call to action?

In comparison to the 6.2 million Australians signing up to COVID Safe, the opportunity for marketers is to communicate within the scam-free environment of the letterbox that reaches 24.4 million Australians daily.

This seems like a difficult position to quantify when ignoring these alarm bells.

On top of that, we’re not always getting it right – Woolworths received a $1 million fine for incorrect use of customer data, while Google is currently under investigation with the ACCC for similar misuse and ongoing investigations into email scams costing Australians $634 million throughout 2019.

Misuse and thereby mistrust is on the rise.

Brands must err on the side of caution, otherwise they run the risk of pushing consumers to a place where they are less than comfortable and lose brand equity in the process.

5. Work harder than ever with media Boston Consulting Group argues that the dynamics of the retail industry, buffeted so violently by the COVID-19 pandemic, requires retailers to be

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intelligently aggressive. In today’s world, and the one to come as the virus ebbs, only parallel decisive actions will produce winning results.

In other words, if a retailer is solely focused on stabilisation now and plans to prepare for the rebound later, it will likely be too late.

Whatever your customer plans are on store presence or digital logistics, you need to keep a clear strategy in play for physical media presence to hold strong brand recall and equity.

Should any hiccups occur during a retailer’s transition, your customer’s brand equity will be the insurance that will carry them through.

Catalogues, magazines and the letterbox are key to this strategy.

Throughout the Australian lockdown, magazine subscriptions increased,

catalogues response rate, and ROI remains stronger than ever and letterbox reach surpasses any digital media engagement.

The Association of National Advertisers recently reported catalogue response rates increased by 170 per cent between 2004 and 2018.

And last year saw pure-play retailers – Amazon and eBay, most notably – develop their own physical catalogues to explore product range and drive sales windows. eBay distributed two million catalogues to targeted areas across Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane to reach customers offline, and Amazon launched its toy catalogue globally.

These are some examples of a growing trend of pure-play retailers branching out into physical media, as they come to understand that consumers do not sit in a single channel environment.

Kellie Northwood is the CEO of The Real Media Collective, an industry Association representing the paper, print, mail, publishing and distribution companies across Australia and New Zealand. Northwood also holds the executive director position for the Australasian Paper Industry Association (APIA).

For more information contact: 03 9421 2296 or hello@thermc.com.au. www.therealmediacollective.com.au

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 49

TALES FROM THE PRINTERVERSE

The long road to new business

starts now

A

s we come upon the holiday season, it is a stark reminder that 2021 is right around the corner and knowing what that will bring for our business is not a gift COVID will exchange this year.

With uncertainty a consistent factor, embracing the unknown as an opportunity and turning it into a strategy could open up some interesting possibilities.

If losing money wasn’t a factor and if losing customers wasn’t a factor, would you be doing anything differently? Could you be doing anything differently to attract and win new business?

Throw out “this is the way we do things around here” and let’s reassess new business development and the customer relationship in Corona. Here are three things to get your started:

It’s not about you

You may have recently acquired a new press, and/or new finishing equipment, and/or new add-on marketing technology to offer. You can spend time doing research and prospecting for new customers who can benefit from all of that, and you should! You made your purchases to differentiate yourself and help customers achieve success with their marketing.

So, are you?

‘Data for Decisions’ is my mantra for 2021 – and it’s now yours. Qualifying and quantifying every dollar spent with you and formulating that information into repeatable business results for customers is the fastest way to a ‘yes’.

Capabilities are super important and help you present more options for execution – just keep in mind that speaking about that in the ‘pitch’ makes it about you. Focusing on how you help

With uncertainty a consistent factor, embracing the unknown as an opportunity and turning it into a strategy could open up some interesting possibilities

Plant the content and communication seeds now, cultivate your audience, and both could grow into business opportunities next year – or after

customers make money regardless which press it ran on, makes your conversation about them.

Selective services

Professional print buyers are working remote and from the people I have been speaking with through my relationship with the Advertising Production Club of NYC, that isn’t changing anytime soon.

This situation presents some challenges and opens up some doors for new conversations to happen.

Here are some issues that have been shared with me previously: Can’t get in touch with their team, can’t get access to the files they need, information and files being emailed by numerous people out of sequence and more difficult to keep things organised, not sure if their vendors are at work, not sure who to get paper samples from, having proofing issues and incurring additional expenses for multiple proofs and overnight shipping, estimates taking a long time, general job communication is less frequent.

Perhaps there is a way you can swoop in with solutions. What services can you create to help remote buyers with any of those issues?

Take me to your leader

I recently presented Content for Conversions for #GirlsWhoPrint Fierce, Fabulous

50 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

Fridays and I focused on developing a personal brand and building a quality community around your products and services to communicate with.

Content supports your data for decision prospecting strategy and can help you build an audience around topics that enforce your ability to produce, track and report business results. Content can come in many forms: website information, how you describe what you do and who you help, testimonials, tweets, social media re-sharing, company information on social platforms… to name a few.

Then there is content in the form of the actual marketing you do for your business and the content included in conversations you have about how you help customers make money and/or achieve the business goals they set.

So, be a resource; be a beacon of hope that help is a click or call away.

Be a thought leader on every vertical you service and an idea generator to help businesses achieve their results.

This is going to take time Plant the content and communication seeds now, cultivate your audience, and both could grow into business opportunities next year – or after.

There is no longer a fast pass for success. If you need help, get in touch and we will figure it out.

Deborah Corn has more than 25 years of experience working in advertising as a print producer. She is the Intergalactic Ambassador to The Printerverse at Print Media Centr, a Print Buyerologist, international speaker and blogger, host of Podcasts From The Printerverse, cultivator of Print Production Professionals, Head Girl in Charge at Girls Who Print, host of #PrintChat, the founder of International Print Day and the founder of #ProjectPeacock.

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What 2020 has shown is

OP-ED

most important Look back at 2020 and determine what has remained constant in your business so as to shape plans for 2021

N

ever in living memory has there been a year that has been as uncertain in every aspect of life and business, as universally disruptive and globally impactful than 2020.

Although we were all used to things changing fast and having to adapt and evolve, the curve-balls that 2020 has thrown at businesses have come faster and more often than ever before.

Knowing that this state of universal uncertainty is likely to continue for the foreseeable future to some extent, we now need to try to prepare ourselves to survive a 2021 that may be similarly turbulent.

Looking back on 2020 so far, what have you noticed are the things that have remained constant in business? Is it…

• Your customers’ needs?

• The importance of personal communication within your team?

• The processes you use to deliver value?

• The underlying model you base your business on?

• Nothing at all?

The key to the best shot at surviving (and thriving) in 2021, is to focus on the things that remained the same even throughout this turbulent time and to look for ways to further leverage these things, strengthen them or enhance their value.

For example, if you noticed that your customers still valued the face-to-face time they had with your team, even where this was on Zoom, you know that this is something you need to continue to prioritise and maybe even to look for ways to enhance it moving forward. Or you may have noticed that due to customers not being able to come into your office that communication slipped and issues arose as a result when it came to fulfilment.

Ask yourself what it was about the inperson communication that is now missing and look for ways to address that by creating a form, a video message, a Zoom

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We now need to try to prepare ourselves to survive a 2021 that may be similarly turbulent, so take a look at what worked in 2020

call or whatever it may be that would bridge that gap. You’ll also need to take an honest look at the way in which you adapted to work around the restrictions and whether or not this adaptation has actually been an improvement in efficiency.

For example, when it comes to inperson meetings that you used to travel for, if these have had to be moved to video calls and the outcomes haven’t been affected, then is this something you can continue even where there are no restrictions?

Where this is the case, if you find that it is saving on average 60 minutes of drive time and $20 in parking per meeting, and you used to send your sales team out for five meetings each per week, then how can you leverage this saving?

Is it an option to offer an incentive of time off or bonuses to your sales team for hitting targets? Or would it be better to reassign this time for team brainstorming meetings to work through customer issues or objections which are stressing the team out? Is there some time-cased task you could do for your customers that you’d previously have had to charge for or a gift you could now afford to send?

I’ve found a great, simple way to get the whole team involved and quickly gather first-hand insights is to do a ‘Start-Stop-Continue’ session.

1. Decide where you want to focus – is it the whole business? The sales team?

2. Decide what you’re interested in

understanding more about – is it overall efficiency? Is it lead generation or closing sales?

3. In your boardroom, lunchroom or appropriate room – put up three big pieces of butcher’s paper with headings ‘Start-Stop-Continue’.

4. Decide if you want this to be a short and sharp session of 30 to 60 minutes or whether you want to allow people to put their notes up over a day or a week.

5. Get everyone on the relevant team or the whole business around a table and have a few stacks of post-it notes handy for brainstorming.

6. Explain to them the area of focus and specific issue that you’d like to get more info about and that you’d like them to a sense for what they feel is going really well and should continue to be done, what is not working and needs to be stopped and what they think is missing and should be started.

7. Make sure that they all know it’s an anonymous process and they just need to jot their thoughts down on the post-it and stick it up in the right area (Stop, Start or Continue).

8. Let them put up as many as they like.

9. Once the period of time is over, gather up all the notes and have a VA or appropriate team member collate them.

10. Review them and then call another meeting to discuss the input and plan to implement appropriate actions.

To unlock profitability through emotional engagement in marketing and communications, Meqa Smith launched The Unforgettable Agency, which she currently heads as its strategist.

AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020 | 51

OP-ED

Navigating Australia’s emerging

circular economy

A circular economy for all industries is underway, and print has a huge part to play in its making too

The concept of a circular economy is gaining traction and print has a part in that evolution

A

ustralian printers have a critical role to play in the emerging circular economy as the industry aims to redefine growth by focusing on the positive society-wide benefits of it.

NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) Development Manager Dr Donald McCallum said like many other industries, print is going through significant technological change.

“By developing technologies that can improve substrates and adhesives, printers will have a greater say in what happens to their products post-consumption,” Dr McCallum said.

“Australian universities and research institutions have a lot to offer with regards to developing innovative solutions for sensing contaminants and creating materials that will easily lend themselves to separation and ultimately recycling.”

In a project coordinated by the NSSN, PEGRAS Asia Pacific and other major Australian companies will work with university researchers to develop solutions for sensing and treating residual contaminants on HDPE milk bottles.

The project aims to increase the percentage of recycled HDPE in materials recovery facilities (MRFs) by developing state of the art sensing technologies.

As part of this project, researchers from UNSW, University of Sydney and University of Technology Sydney (UTS) will develop methods to sense and remove the contaminants on HDPE plastic chips, scale the solution for deployment in recycling facilities and provide a highresolution material flow analysis for the HDPE milk bottle supply chain.

Dr McCallum said with the Waste Export Ban coming into effect, it is crucial for Australian manufacturers to develop sustainable practices and use materials that are part of the circular economy.

THE NSSN CAN BRING TOGETHER PRINT COMPANIES WITH SCIENTISTS AND ENGINEERS...

The Waste Export Ban prohibits the export of waste plastic, paper, glass and tyres that have not been processed into a “value-added” material.

“We are looking to expand the project from HDPE to other key polymers and objects like paper, glass and even RFID tags. We are happy to collaborate with printers working with complex materials,” Dr McCallum added.

“The NSSN can bring together print companies with scientists and engineers and provide guidance on grants available.”

A consortium of eight leading research universities from across NSW and the ACT, the NSSN brings together expertise in academia, industry and government to deliver innovative solutions to complex challenges. The NSSN has access to a pool of scientific expertise with application across a range of industries including the

52 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

built environment, agriculture, medical technology, space, energy, data analytics and advanced manufacturing. It collaborates with industry and government to gain an in-depth understanding of their challenges and draws upon the strengths of leading research institutions to develop smart sensing solutions.

Managing consultant at PEGRAS Asia Pacific Dr Stephanus Peters said for the last 500 years print manufacturers have developed products with an eye to quality and quantity.

“It is only recently that we have realised these products have to be deconstructed in order to be recycled,” Dr Peters said.

“Manufacturing a printed product with recycling in mind greatly increases the product’s ability to be deconstructed at the end of life cycle, enabling it to contribute to the circular economy.”

Dr Peters said by collaborating on research and development projects, local businesses and scientists can find solutions to problems such as de-laminating and de-inking, and as a result, improve the recyclability of printed products.

“There is an enormous potential for [research and development] projects with NSW universities,” Dr Peters said.

“A Chinese Proverb says ‘The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is now’. So, we may not be conditioned to solve problems by asking the universities, but if we don’t ask, we will never know which solution they can bring.”

NSSN development manager Dr Donald McCallum and PEGRAS managing consultant Dr Stephanus Peters as interviewed by NSSN media and public relations officer Shahrzad Abbasi

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64 | AUSTRALIAN PRINTER NOVEMBER 2020

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WE ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS

We just want to reach out and reassure all our valued customers, partners and colleagues that Dataflow Business Systems are fully operational and here to continue uninterupted production throughout this difficult time.

CONTINUOUS

FREE DIE

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LONG RUN

Laser

A.C.N. 134 989

343 A.B.N. 42 134

FIRMLY PLEASE PRINT

Charge Sender

Sender State

Ph No.

Postcode

XXXX A24 XXX8 203

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Items

Weight in kgs

L (cms) x W (cms) X

Pal PU

Exchange

GOOD SUSPECTED INT. DAMAGE

INSURANCE IS

DANGEROUS AND

CORRECT SHIPPING

RECEIVED BY REGAL TRANS DAMAGED INSUFFICIENT PACKAGNG

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HAZARDOUS GOODS

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Terms: Strictly

IBILITY

x H (cms) x Qty

JOB / QUOTE No.

X

X

NON RETUR NED CHEP & LOSCAM PALLET WILL BE CHARG S ED AT $75.00 EACH.

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

SERVICE

m3

MUST BE DECLARED

DELIVERY/O

WEIGHT

Time

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PICK-UP Date DRIVER ...............

I.D. ............. / .............

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X

X

X

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ORIG - RED 179

CARBONLESS BOOKS long and short run

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