iMedia takes the high road to PrintWorks

Faced with an exorbitant transport bill to move his wide-format inkjet machines from Sydney to Melbourne in time for PrintWorks, Chris Lewis-Williams took matters into his own hands.

Logistics are part of every trade show and sometimes they can be the difference between making it worthwhile to exhibit or not. When Chris Lewis-Williams, group manager of iMedia, was faced with what he considered an over the top charge to shift the gear to Sydney over the weekend, he went and hired a Budget rent a truck to make the trip himself.

He had an extra motive in that it gave him a chance to introduce Tyler Marshall, iMedia’s hardware sales manager, to the Australian landscape. Marshall hails from Canada, here to bolster the fast growing team at iMedia, which is the national PaperlinX wide-format business.

The pair loaded up the hardware and rolls of substrate and headed up the Hume, arriving at Darling Harbour in plenty of time to set up for the Monday morning opening.

“I couldn’t believe they wanted to charge me so much,” said Lewis-Williams. “We’d have to sell over $30,000 just to make up the transports charges. Besides, it gave Tyler a good opportunity to see a bit of the country.”

The road trip almost turned into a marathon with 'Full' signs on all the hotels in Yass, Gundegai and Goulburn. The guys eventually found a place in Canberra to break the trip.

"It was good, my first time on an Australian road trip. But I am flying home," said Tyler.

The truck carried an EFI Rastek H700 wide-format inkjet and rolls of the iMedia newly branded media range – dtec, for showing on the stand. Lewis-Williams and Tyler are both hoping the Rastek finds a home in Sydney after the show.

"We've had lots of interest. We'll have to wait until the last day [Wednesday] to see how it goes," said Tyler.