6 minute read
STAR BUSINESS: NEXT PRINTING
Leading the Next generation
Sustainability, talent, and automation are set to shape the future of Next Printing.
Next Printing recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, marking two decades as a pioneer in print.
First started as a photographic lab, Next Printing has continued to pivot throughout its 20-year history, becoming a leader in wide format printing, and more recently, entering the labels market.
The milestone was recently marked with a celebration at Sydney’s Quay Restaurant, with staff, customers, and suppliers gathering to reflect on the company’s history.
“You often hear the phrase that people are the most valuable assets, but at Next Printing, we see it differently. Our people aren’t assets, they are family,” Romeo Sanuri, managing director of Next Printing told attendees at the 20th anniversary event in Sydney.
“We have had our share of setbacks, but that doesn’t keep us from continuing to innovate. They are our stepping stones that have taught us incredible lessons,” Sanuri said.
“Looking around this room, I see more than colleagues and partners. I see family. I see fellow travellers that have shared this incredible journey with us. Through challenges and triumphs, through innovation and transformation, thank you for being a part of our story.”
Data-driven sustainability
Sustainability has been at the forefront for Next throughout its history, with the Sydney-based printer one of the first in Australia to introduce eco-friendly solutions, such as Swedish cardboard product, Re-board, and biodegradable materials to the local market.
“Ten years ago, we were one of the first to introduce Re-board,” Pranil Chandra, general manager of Next Printing, told ProPrint.
“Back then, people didn’t know what it was, so it was a hard slog educating customers about it.”
More recently, Next has harnessed the power of data to support its sustainable practices, introducing comprehensive carbon studies and life cycle assessments of the materials and production processes used for customers’ displays and activations.
“The data has made a big impact and has really resonated with our customers,” Chandra said.
In collaboration with internal and external stakeholders, including experts in environmental studies, Next produces a ‘cradle to grave’ sustainability comparison between Re-board and MDF. This data provides a comprehensive understanding of the harmful effects of MDF at all stages, including its disposal to landfill post-event – the point at which the material does its most harm.
By showing the emissions comparison between sustainable materials and MDF and how these carbon savings equate in the real world – such as the number of kilometres a car travels or the number of days used by an average household – customers can see how green their initiatives are.
The studies analyse emissions at a job level and provide comparisons against more traditional methods of completing a project, along with the associated energy savings. This emissions data can then be converted into clear and simple messaging. For example, ‘this stand is made from Re-board and reduces emissions by 50 per cent, the equivalent of one flight from Sydney to Melbourne’.
“We recently had a job where the savings was a car travelling 18,000km – that’s one whole year of car travel saved in one job,” Chandra said.
Using the data provided by Next to back up their sustainability claims, customers can go one step further and produce relatable and persuasive messaging around it that’s concise, digestible, and informative.
“There are a lot of brands that are doing the right thing, but they can’t properly communicate it with their customers, but this messaging helps make it very clean and succinct for them,” Chandra said.
Automation and innovation
Chandra said Next has only “scratched the surface” of migrating customers away from MDF to other materials such as Re-board.
“Four years ago, we decided to focus on educating our existing database on alternative materials, which we have had great success with. The focus for us over the next 12 to 18 months will be talking to other potential business partners about Re-board,” he said.
“It is not so much about selling to them but educating them. Increasingly, millennials want to buy from brands that have the same ethos and belief systems as them. Therefore, we want to empower customers with as much information as possible so they can make better business decisions.”
Another key area of growth for the company is its labels business, Next Labels, which was first started in 2019. At the time of the business’ launch, Next purchased a HP Indigo 6900 Digital Press, setting it up in its own room at Next Printing’s factory, along with an ABI Digicon cutter and laminator system, all sourced through Currie Group.
“Alongside Re-board, labels is one of the fastest growing segments of our business,” said Chandra.
“Re-board represents about 35 per cent of the business and labels is around 30 per cent. Both are continuing to grow quite rapidly, and we expect this growth to continue for the next two to three years.”
Chandra said Next Labels’ strategy is to apply a “b2c mindset in a b2b environment”.
“Before we started Next Labels, we saw a massive increase in small businesses who were printing smaller label runs overseas. We learnt a lot from one of our business partners overseas about how they go about printing labels cost effectively.
“We are putting significant focus on our platform to ensure small businesses don’t go offshore and instead go businesses like ours here in Australia. We’re investing heavily in automation and in our e-commerce platform, and we are already seeing significant growth.”
Fuelling the future
Attracting new and young talent to the print industry is also a key priority for Next this year, with plans to expand its project management team and production team.
“As an industry, we generally look to hire people that are already in print, whereas we’ve taken a different approach,” said Chandra.
“We want to get younger people into our business that don’t come from a print background, but instead are enthusiastic about what we stand for as a business.
“We are looking for talent who have the same mindset and ethos about sustainability as the business does. We recently hired two new people without any print experience and they’re kicking goals. We’ll continue to add more young people in our business, and instead of telling them to come and work for a printing business, we will say to them to come and make a difference.
“Young people care about sustainability and their perspective on the environment and their social conscious is a lot stronger than older generations, so it challenges us in a good way. We are genuinely very excited about the young people that we have coming into our business,” he said.
“While there is a bit of a softening in the industry at the moment, we are confident the industry will continue to grow, and Next Printing will continue to grow with a focus on its people and sustainability.”
