Letters, feedback, get it off your chest: 15 July 2009

James Cryer strikes a chord with readers, who fear for the future of the industry. Why not write in and let us know your thoughts on this, or any other of our stories.

Re: Bring back the branding iron: Print 21 magazine article

How true are your words in this article.

I was at Agency Printing when the GEON Group took us over. We had a modern plant and it ran like clockwork 24/7. Graphic World moved in with us and that is where the fall started.

Agency was a magazine printer and did it well. Graphic World was from a different market and took on anything, which was great but not suited to how Agency was set up. The merge went well for the two companies but was overseen by upper management with no experience of manufacturing. Number crunchers is what they are called and they don’t understand what the industry wants. Had they left all the businesses run as they were they would have done well.

All they have done on each occasion is close a printer down and taken the client base to Banksmeadow to cover the continued loss of business because they have lost the personal touch a client wants. Love your business and cherish your clients as the original owners did because if you don’t somebody else will and that is exactly what has happened.

Clients will always get prices off another printer, they do not, and will not pledge loyalty in most cases to one printer alone.

Keith Blinman