South Australian regional printer, Print City, based in Murray Bridge, was hit by a major flooding event on Sunday 1 March after a heavy rainstorm, leaving a number its machines impacted, including its main digital print equipment.
Water came into Print City’s premises from the rear, which looked to have been caused by stormwater runoff from a construction site that was next door. It affected a large portion of the facility, including much of the production floor, showroom and office areas.
At the moment the company is still operating, just not at full capacity, but it had been advised that some of the affected machines were no longer serviceable, which has created major disruption for its operations.
The company’s two Ricoh devices, a 7200x and its backup unit were the most affected as they were right at the main point of impact, while the amount of moisture through the production room had significantly affected the internal components. These machines handle a large portion of Print City’s day-to-day production.
Print City’s signage and embroidery sides are up and running, and it has been working with trade suppliers to keep its print work moving, while it navigates the current situation. A temporary office has also been set up onsite while everything gets sorted.
“We’ve basically just adapted as quickly as we could. A big part of our mindset early on was making sure the team knew they still had jobs to come to while we worked through everything,” Ryan Hansen, managing director of Print City, tells Print21.
“That first week was pretty chaotic, working through what was and wasn’t going to function properly with our partners and their technical teams.
“We shifted what we could internally onto the equipment that wasn’t affected, and anything we couldn’t produce in house we’ve pushed through a network of trusted trade suppliers. It’s not ideal, but it’s allowed us to keep jobs moving and continue supporting our customers.
“The main priority now is getting reliable production capacity back in place so we can bring everything back in-house and get back to running the way we normally do.”
It’s been a bit of a juggling act, but Hansen tells Print21 that the team has done a great job adapting and keeping things moving.
“We’ve had people working across different areas, adjusting to temporary setups, and helping manage the extra coordination that comes with outsourcing work and running a reduced setup,” he said.
“The biggest challenge has been the disruption to our normal workflow. We’re used to having everything in-house and being able to control timelines and quality closely, so working around that and still trying to deliver the same level of service has been tough.
“We’ve built our business around being able to accommodate rush work and shorter lead times, so not being able to do that as easily has been a big adjustment.”
Thankfully, the company has had really strong support from both its trade partners and the wider network around it.
“Our trade suppliers have been great in helping us push work through at short notice, which has made a big difference. We reached out early to Glen Francis at CMYKhub and they’ve been a huge support for us during this period,” Hansen explains.
“The local Adelaide team at Ricoh, particularly Dave Shaw and their technical team, have also been there every step of the way helping us diagnose the devices and stay on top of the situation.
“There’s no way we’d be travelling as well as we are without that support.
“We’ve also had a lot of understanding from our customers. They’ve been very supportive while we work through slightly longer lead times. Overall, we’ve been able to maintain the majority of our commitments, just with a lot more coordination behind the scenes and a few late nights along the way.”
Print City is currently working through the processes with its insurers and suppliers around repair and replacement of the affected equipment, as well as the cleanout of the building given the amount of mud, silt and mould that came through.
“That will ultimately determine how quickly we can get back to full production. Our focus is on getting back up and running properly as soon as possible, but right now we’re just doing the best we can with the situation in front of us,” Hansen says.
“We’re still working through what the next steps look like, in terms of replacement equipment and getting back to full production, so timelines are a bit unknown at this stage.”
Print City has been operating since 2002, with Hansen taking over the business in January 2018. At that time, it functioned as a traditional regional print shop, running a two-colour Heidelberg SM52, a GTO, and a Konica Minolta 1070.
Since then, the company has expanded significantly to become a full-service provider for commercial print, signage, apparel, packaging, and promotional products.
Today, it operates across offset and digital print, has a complete signage department as a 3M Gold Select Partner, in-house embroidery and garment decoration and graphic design capabilities, along with a growing promotional division.
Print City’s core team consists of seven staff, including Hansen.
