Letters, feedback, get it off your chest: 7 April 2010

Last week’s Special Edition separated the savvy from the fools, while the on-going industry carnage continues to attract reader attention.

Re: Carnage continues across local print industry
I have known Steve Pettaras for many years and I know what it is like to go into voluntary administration, on a smaller scale when Murray and I bought Standard Publishing back in 2000 I had to move because the landlord would not fix the roof which leaked over the presses, I had to get better equipment because the old ones ceased to work and upon sacking sales staff who were print broking for themselves under my nose I lost $200,000 worth of sales in the process.
 
We tried to work with what we had and become better at it. I lost in the end and still work at SPH which has grown considerably in two years.
 
My advice is before it is too late, do your maths, watch your sales reps, do not take jobs on at a loss and keep your staff happy. I don’t know how to stop the price war but I am working on it.
 
Steve good luck with it all – not nice.
 
Gina Turner

Very sad for Pettaras Press, and it seems there are many more to follow, but why?
 
How did it get to this stage where almost every printer is not able to make a "fair" return on their investment … I say blame themselves!
 
When the first "print management/brokers" companies first opened their doors, printers and their lazy sales teams sat idly back letting these companies work the middle-ground between the end client and the printer, and taking the margin that should have been the printers, because there was plenty of work for everyone, and both owners and sales teams were happy with their lot.
 
We move forward a decade and what else has changed?
 
Print brokers are more relevant, have almost entirely cut the printers off from what used to be their clientele, have gained more power, and dictate what return printers may get for their investment by holding what is basically an "open auction" for pricing, using the machinery bought by the printer as well as the paid staff of the printer to procure the pricing, and adsorb absolutely no costs. Absolute genius on their behalf or madness that printers allowed this to happen.
 
So how do we change the balance where the industry continues to enhance its technology, yet still make a return on their investment? Take control of the end client again! How do we do that I hear you snigger ... "It's too late!” No it's not.
 
Printers need to band together, show strength in unity, put rivalry aside, and show these companies that without the printers, they actually have nothing to offer their clients. Ever heard the story about the emperor's new clothes?
 
Get together set an industry benchmark for margins on paper, ink, machine time, estimators, sales, office, staff, whatever you see as vital, and I understand this varies from company to company but there needs to be some sort of trust that it is every printers intention to not give away their sole to win this work.
 
Just imagine this: what if every printer who quotes online for these companies all decided that they would no longer provide quotes, or print jobs for these companies for an agreed period? What can they offer their client then?  Absolutely nothing!
 
Then send your sales team out to those businesses that use brokers and offer your services directly to them and show them your price, and may the best sales person combined with service win . Your price is probably still less than the price received from the broking companies after they add in their margin that should have been yours anyway.
 
I appreciate that this is difficult to achieve, but if it stimulates some sort of action, unity, a different way of thinking, or ideas to enable the trade to flourish then it has been worth typing this letter to Print21.
 
If we all sit back and allow what is happening now then I think we all know where it is going to end for many printers and suppliers. We are in business to make a reasonable profit on our investment, and it is about time we did that, and remember: we own not only the equipment, but the skills to go with it.
 
Name withheld

 
Re: Promote print outside our own industry: Andy Vels Jensen
I only wish all my fellow printers in this wonderful industry of ours would take five minutes and read what Andy Vels Jensen has to say in his address because if we do take notice and we do hold our profit margins and we do work like the banks we all make a profit and then we can all buy new presses.

The current mindset of the majority of our printers today is cut the price and get the job, but that means no progress, no new technology, no new machines, and eventually no business and no jobs. How do we get our industry to understand that the first step is to put in a reasonable price with the standard profit margin even if you do lose 10/20% of your business you will still be better off.

Because each job is making a profit and in the long run everyone will have their profit levels back up where they should be. Perhaps we need to educate our industry on the true costing structure and how the process should work and that way we will eliminate a lot of the silly quoting.

If we have our industry put out true industry costs for things like business cards, letterheads, brochures etc we might start the industry cost cutters on the road to recovery. I can guarantee that the path they are on at the moment will lead them nowhere but the dole queue.  Let’s try and change that.

Ray Tansey

Re: Wodonga workers rely on kindness of printers
I am saddened by the workers loss of jobs by the close knit printing community at the Paragon Printing plant, but is it not in the interest of print managers to keep the business going?

Craig Foley

Re: Think both sides of the press – Print21 magazine article
I must commend Warren Davey’s great article regarding purchasing a digital press. Warren whom I have known for some time is a highly regarded and respected person in our industry. His article is credible and accurate; I hope reader’s take his advice, far too often I see offset printers investing good money in digital equipment without really having a clear vision as to what they expect it to do for their business. Simply jumping on the digital print bandwagon and investing capital in their new foray to provide value-ad and yet more commodity print is simply not a good enough reason.

The new breed of digital printers have become a lot savvier and are constantly developing new and innovative ways to provide print to market. I strongly endorse Warren’s closing comments:

“When thinking about digital production, a holistic approach is a wise one. A completely new and totally separate business plan should be created rather than striving for solutions to augment or plug holes in your current one. You may think the answer to gaining more business is to simply drop a new digital box into your business as it currently stands but in reality, more often than not, it definitely isn’t.”

Well said, Warren!
 
Theo Pettaras

This article is well written and truly on the mark.
 
Well done
 
Ray Moore

Re: Target takes catalogue contract to PMP
The grief and pain that PMP have taken all the Coles businesses through over quite a few decades obviously stand for absolutely nothing with this appointment.
Name withheld

Re: Federal Government ban on intra and inter-department email
Love it.
 
Welcome to April 01
 
David Austin

It's the first of April, I believe
Glen Dyer

Lirpa's name is a give-away.
Nice effort though!
John Meehan

Sounds a bit like an April Fools joke?
 
Steve Egan

Best April Fool’s joke I have read for a long time.
If true, what is Rudd thinking?

Gerard Harris

I’m not sure what’s more ridiculous.

The fact that our Federal Government (the same government that wants to censor the Internet) cannot implement effective email policies and protocols to protect the flow of communication is sad enough. But to see the paper and printing industries rejoicing in their decision to revert back to the ‘dark ages’ just so they can lop down more trees is astounding.

Do you really think that information leaks didn’t occur prior to electronic communications?
Matthew Green

Don’t we wish it were true ...
 
Happy April Fool’s day guys.
Brett Dashwood

Caused a lot of fun here. Well done!

Nick O'Gorman