LIVE FROM IPEX briefing in Birmingham UK – Angus Paterson

Printing.com opened its first store in the UK in 1998 and has since grown to become one of its most significant and visible print providers, expanding to over 140 outlets throughout the country. The business functions through a ‘hub and spoke’ model, with all the work obtained from the Printing.com outlets performed at its major commercial print centre.

Master Printing.com franchises are now being made available worldwide, billed as suitable for an established full-colour commercial printer looking to diversify its core business into additional markets. Printing.com has confirmed that Australia is likely to be one of the first territories in the world to adopt the scheme, and is already engaged in discussions with several likely candidates in the Australian commercial print market.

Presenting at the Ipex Inward Mission, Tony Rafferty, CEO of Printing.com, claims he is confident the business concept will make a smooth transition into the Australian print market.

“Why shouldn’t they be able to secure the same sort of results we’ve achieved in the UK?” says Rafferty. “We want to help the master franchise to use all the available resources of Printing.com to start rolling out the franchise in their respective country.”

Printing.com is making big promises to businesses worldwide looking to pick up the franchise, boasting 14 per cent profit after tax– significantly higher than the UK industry's three to four per cent at large. It also claims production savings of as much as 71 per cent, attributing this efficiency to the use of its high-end commercial printing hub to mass produce jobs with small to medium run lengths.

“We’re using high-end printing equipment to produce runs of 500 business cards,” says Rafferty. “Though we possess the capabilities, we choose not to chase the jobs with larger run lengths because they do not offer us the same yields and efficiencies. We leave that to the other commercial printers.”

Following the establishment of the Master Printing.com franchise in Australia, operators will be able to begin opening the ‘spoke’ outlets around the country. These take the form of either stand-alone franchises, which make up the majority of the outlets currently doing business in the UK, or a bolt-on franchise, where an existing graphic design or print company adds the Print.com formula to its existing operations.

Simon Davies, franchise director at Printing.com, says it will be a matter of months before a local decision is reached. “Though no commitments have been made, we’ve been keeping our eyes on several likely candidates within the Australian print sector,” he says.

Davies was frank when discussing the impact of the success of Printing.com on what he refers to as the ‘jobbing’ sector – print businesses producing at the level of around 5000 runs.

“We know that when we open up in a town, we win over the contracts,” says Davies. “Those businesses that have brought into the Printing.com franchise have been successful, while those standing by the old way of doing things have been hurting.”

Davies concedes that while Australia is one of the largest countries in the world geographically, he is confident the major commercial print centre will have the capabilities to serve the entire continent. While the possibility remains that a master Printing.com franchise will be opened in New Zealand, Davies indicates it is likely the Australian operations will be able to sufficiently serve its clients across the Tasman