ANNIVERSARIES
Vivad embraces evolution on its 20th birthday Vivad has met its challenges head-on and has evolved itself to meet market demands
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esilience is one of the virtues that Vivad truly encompasses, as the company celebrates its 20th anniversary in a pandemic-stricken year. Vivad Australia managing director Ewen Donaldson has pushed the business to achieve success in new areas from the first day of its inception, and is still doing the same to keep the company going. Vivad was started when Donaldson, having worked for his parents’ business, Polyweld, making truck side curtains, saw a demand for printing on truck side curtains and set up a separate business. “We started with close to nothing – we only had one customer. Printing truck sides was the primary motivation but there were other markets that we were interested in pursuing,” Donaldson said. He invested in the company’s first printer, a VUTEk 5300, then. It wasn’t long before Vivad bought a second printer in 2000, a Roland eight colour HiFi jet 7600 Pro, to handle smaller format work. It was about this time that Vivad put in its first laminator so that it could apply film laminate to its digitally printed products. “Printing on the sides of trucks was a natural progression given that the technology had come of age. It soon
became apparent that there were more opportunities in large format digital printing than just fleet graphics. We started printing banners for exhibitions and events, and point-of-sale material,” Donaldson said. “We slowly started building relationships with companies. In the first week itself, having heard of our new printers, we were approached by the supply side – material vendors and those selling adhesive vinyls. This gave rise to learning more about different applications for large format digital printing.” But to further build the business, Donaldson knew he had to invest in stateof-the-art printing equipment. “In 2004, we bought our first flatbed printer, the VUTEk PV200SC, which allowed us to print up to two metres wide on rigid materials, as well as roll-to-roll. It was also then that UV cured inks started to take the place of solvent based inks. This allowed printing on a wider range of substrates including rigid materials like corflute, forex and acrylic,” he said. In 2005, Vivad installed a 2.5 metre Seiko Colorpainter 100S and a VUTEk 3360EC and in 2008, welcomed the addition of a HP Designjet 500.
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“From there, we ended up getting into fabrics in 2010 with the procurement of the VUTEk Fabrivu. Soft signage was a term coined for digital print sublimated onto polyester. It was around this time that stretch frame signage started to become popular, so Vivad started to develop its own unique stretch frame extrusion designs. A whole range of new soft signage products came into being such as Feathers and Teardrops,” Donaldson said. Since then, the company has also invested in the HP L25500, Durst 500R, Zund XL3200, VUTEk GS3250LX, ATP Colour, Teleios Black, HP 360, Durst Rhotex 325, Bullmer five metre cutter and the Durst 512R LED. “We’re always hungry to print on new materials and finding different applications within the large format digital space,” Donaldson said, adding that he decided to run the business with a focus on large format printing as being able to print five metres wide at 300 dpi was in high demand from 20 years ago, which opened Vivad up to a world of opportunities including large format printing for the Sydney Olympics. In the past five years, the company has doubled in size and seen a YoY growth of 20 per cent. It has developed its vertical play to include exhibitions and events, media, retail, architecture, and other general signage. In 2015, Vivad moved from a 1200 square metre factory to a 3500 square metre factory in Campbellfield, Victoria. With more room for growth, the move heralded a new era for Vivad, which now employs 32 staff.
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