"We're pretty excited at the moment because we're going through a period of expansion," says Kelly Mackay, general manager of leading trade-only printer IBS Cards, based at Nerang on Queensland's Gold Coast.
IBS - which includes web-to-print division Edit & Print - recently added a Duplo DC-646 Slitter/Cutter/Creaser and a new HP Indigo 7800 to its state of the art plant on Lawrence Drive, where it employs a staff of 35. IBS has been servicing the Australian and New Zealand design and print trade since 1996 and also has a factory at Rosebery in Sydney.
Mackay says the company 'went around the world' before deciding on Duplo's versatile digital color finisher. "The big thing for us was definitely the barcoding feature," he says.
The DC-646 comes with a built-in CCD (Charge Coupled Device) scanner, enabling it to recall any job stored in memory by reading the printed barcode then automatically setting up the job.
"What this allows us to do is offer clients a much wider range of options, not just in the range of products and stock but also in the quantities," says Mackay. IBS specialises in high quality business cards and postcards and in a month can produce up to four million units.
"Because we've pushing through such volume, our workflow needs to be as fully automated and as simple as possible," Mackay says. "The barcoding helps us automate as much of the process as we can and allows us to offer innovative, all-encompassing solutions at the best possible prices, not just in product offerings but also in our workflow."
Production Manager Alan Dyer (pictured) adds that the DC-646 is also excellent for small runs. "If somebody wants it, we can now do just one or two business cards or 25, 50, 100 or a few thousand. In the past we would print it and have to cut it up on the guillotine and that was time-consuming, so it's a real benefit. If someone wants 100 cards, you're only talking five sheets."
The Slitter's installation went without a hitch. "It all went very smoothly and I couldn't be any happier with the support we get from the Neopost guys," says Mackay.
Printers that are investing, not just in hardware but in efficiencies and customer service, are the ones that are doing well, he says.
"In this day and age - and it doesn't matter whether it's print or any other industry - if you're not looking for your unique selling proposition then you're probably going to struggle.
"This expansion has allowed us to really sharpen our pencil with our pricing and to give a much broader range of quantities and exponentially grow our product base. So while competitors may market themselves as having 'the biggest range of business cards in Australia' - and they may have 13 or 14 options - with the new stock we've been able to bring in now we've expanded that to a hundred options, so we're truly breaking new ground as far as what we can offer our clients, especially in our business card range."
Mackay sees a market increasingly geared towards customised options.
"Definitely the trends for us are in the bespoke products. Everyone's trying to make themselves different, whether it's a different type of stock on their business card or finish or whatever it might be. What's important for our customers is becoming less and less about price and more and more about the quality and the options because, like us, they're trying to set themselves afield from the others."