- Labelworld, soon to be Labelmakers World site
- Labelworld, soon to be Labelmakers World site
Labelmakers Group is set to close down its WA operation and join forces with Labelworld, the regional division of Labelcraft, in a bid to weather market pressures.
Both brands will cease trading independently and pool resources in a new 50/50 joint venture, called Labelmakers World, to begin operating from the current Labelworld premises, in Wangara, before the end of the year.
Rod Bryan, general manager sales and marketing, Labelmakers Group, said, "The WA market is a small market that offers a lot of challenges, especially considering the distances involved for a national business. It's critical to have people on the ground, and to have a local manufacturing capacity. National customers have an expectation for us to locally support the WA market, and it wasn't an option to pull out. The option that emerged was to run a joint business."
Despite competition between the two brands on a national level, Bryan insists that their respective client lists were suitably complementary to make the joint venture a viable opportunity.
Management has decided to shut down Labelmakers' Malaga facility in favour of the Labelworld site, as the former's lease was due to expire. The joint venture's new management structure has been finalised, headed up by Daniela Nickel who will be continuing on at the Labelworld site as general manager, to be joined by two Labelmakers alumni, sales manager Jared Jones and operations manager John Molyneaux.
Bryan has informed Print21 that no jobs have currently been lost, but he was was unable to confirm the size or scale of the restructure.
"That hasn't yet been determined. We will be making an assessment of equipment in relation to supplying the market, and the personnel to run that business efficiently," said Bryan.
Labelworld is the WA-based division of Labelcraft, operating nationally through a series of partnerships since 1983. Labelmakers Group started up in Victoria in 1987 as a letterpress label shop, and now has a regional presence with additional sites in Adelaide and Hamilton, New Zealand.