STAR BUSINESS
Creative Plastic Cards thrives and grows in Sydney and Brisbane Creative Plastic Cards, a supplier of custom-designed plastic cards, card holders and marketing material, was created in 2009. Based in Caringbah in Sydney’s south, it was founded by Christina Farrugia, who identified a gap in the market for supplying businesses with gift cards and loyalty cards. With the contacts she gained through her beauty business, she started Creative Plastic Cards from her home. Over the years, the family run business has grown to a team of 13 (including Christina’s daughter Cassie), and expanded with the opening of a paper production facility in Brisbane. In this Q&A session with Colleen Bate, Cassie Farrugia shares the company’s history, growth, and plans for the future.
Entrance to the Creative Plastic Cards paper production facility in Brisbane
Q.
WHAT IS YOUR PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND?
Since completing my tertiary studies in accounting and business management, I spent over 10 years working in wholesale distribution for various companies. I also worked for businesses including Dateline Imports and Professional Beauty Solutions before I eventually joined Creative Plastic Cards in a full-time capacity in 2020.
Over the years, I’ve specialised in sales, marketing – particularly events, having organised many conferences, roadshows, and gala events – and operations, with a focus on facilitating imports and exports and implementing strategic business planning and analytics into day-to-day operations.
40 ProPrint February 2024
Christina and Cassie Farrugia
Evolis Avansia short-run card printer
Q. WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO WORK AT CREATIVE PLASTIC CARDS?
now operate as Creative Print Group Pty Ltd trading as Creative Plastic Cards.
My mum Christina is a born entrepreneur and has always been an inspiration to me. It was always my intention and hope to work alongside her and in 2020 we made the decision to work together and haven’t looked back since. As Creative Plastic Cards continued to go from strength to strength, the opportunity presented itself to further grow the team. Together we decided the business would benefit from the skills I’d gained in previous roles and planned to continue driving its growth by tackling new areas and improving our existing operating areas. Last year Christina and I restructured the business into a company structure and
Q. WHAT EQUIPMENT HAS BEEN PURCHASED SINCE THE BUSINESS BEGAN?
We’ve been fortunate to maintain longstanding relationships with some very reputable offshore partners, and over the years we’ve also invested in a range of equipment. Our facilities include a Ricoh digital press, a digital die-cutting machine, a Thermotype NSF Elite, a foil stamping, embossing and die cutting machine (which has increased our productivity and output capabilities, and enabled us to provide high quality embellishments and bespoke packaging to our customers), an APR automatic folder and gluing machine
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