Defying conventional wisdom - Print 21 magazine article

Just because many people believe in something doesn't make it true, says Print 21 publisher, Patrick Howard.

Going with the flow and running with the pack may be safer and less exhausting than being out on your own. Mavericks tend to get into trouble and tall poppies are likely to be lopped. There is no point in being contrary just for the sake of it; the world has no shortage of terrorists who haven't got the sense not to blow themselves up. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel and the byways of irrelevance often prove to be lonely narrow tracks that peter out in dusty paddocks.

Having said that, we should not lose sight of the fact that there is satisfaction to be gained in going your own way, in making up your own mind and following your dream. The person that never made a mistake never made anything and you're not likely to make less of them simply by doing what others do. Comes a time when you have to take your own sighting of the lay of the land and back your own hunch. Otherwise you'll live to regret it.

These thoughts were brought on by the news that Alastair Hill is getting back into printing. Word is he is building a greenfield printing factory in Mount Waverly, Melbourne, where he will install at least one long perfecting press - a Heidelberg, naturally, given his track record - and be open for business early next year. For those who don't know Alastair, a little background is in order. He is the chap who almost single-handedly kick-started the latest round of industry amalgamations and consolidation. Taking a small regional Victorian printing company, Buscombe Print, he traded and parlayed it up, merged with and took over a litany of well-known printing companies along the length and breadth of the east coast until he emerged as managing director of Penfold Buscombe, the country's largest sheetfed printing company. (For those interested in the details, type Alastair Hill into the Search function on this page).

By any measure it was a stunning run of success and it changed the way the industry operated and viewed itself. He brought into sharp relief the failing economics of many long-established printing companies that were stuck in a rut of traditional operational practices, without the wherewithal to invest in new equipment or the entrepreneurial drive to change the inevitable slow decline conventional wisdom had assigned them. Along the way he ruffled a few feathers, of course, breaking eggs for omelettes and failing to endear himself to those who got in his way. Some of this came back to bite him.

Following a last throw when he took over Scanlon's in Queensland, the Penfold Buscombe board brought in a management consultant and, in short order, Alastair was out the door, the details cloaked in conventional farewells and the usual 'thanks for all the fish' statements. But there were reports that it wasn't a happy separation and Alastair went to ground, presumably to lick his wounds. Shortly afterwards, Gresham private equity bought Penfold Buscombe, merged it with its New Zealand printing properties, changed its name to Geon and installed Gordon Towel to run what is undoubtedly the largest sheetfed company in region.

Part of Alastair's success came with the conventional wisdom that the industry had too many small- to mid-sized players. People believed him when he said it was necessary to get big or get out. Certainly the conventional wisdom is that the industry is still in need of continuing consolidation and that there is little future for stand-alone, mid-sized printing companies. And perhaps that is true.

But then here comes Alastair back into the game and I am told that he has no intention of starting the consolidation trail again, that he is a convert to the notion that there is an optimum size for a printing company, which is what he's aiming at.

And then there is Scott Telfer, a seasoned industry player, formerly marketing manager of Penfold Buscombe, before that the general manager of Tom Pongrass's Websdale Printing prior to its acquistion by Penfold Buscombe, and before that a sales manager for Heidelberg. You have to think he knows a thing or too about the printing industry. He left Geon last Christmas and has now started up Southern Colour (NSW), and yes, you've guessed it; it's a mid-sized printing company with a Heidelberg.

So here are two guys who've had front row seats during the latest bout of industry consolidation and they both decide to flout conventional wisdom and dive back into the fray with small- to mid-sized printing companies.

On this one, you'll have to make up your own mind.

Happy Christmas from all of us here at Print 21 and we'll see you next year.