It all boils down to time. As more printers make the decision to outsource print projects, the onus on the primary beneficiaries of that shift – trade printers – to meet expectations has increased exponentially. LEP has answered the call, as CEO John Bromfield told Print21 magazine.
Turning the job around immediately and delivering it on time regardless, is the lot of trade printers in their largely unsung role. This demand for high production performance has driven a raft of changes in the trade sector.
Some months ago, LEP Colour Printers, based in both Queensland and Melbourne, offered clients a next-day dispatch guarantee for a wide range of print products. This offer was later extended to include offset printed full-colour folded brochures on 150gsm. The response from printers was very positive.
Now LEP has gone further by offering over 1,800 business print products with a same-day or next-day dispatch guarantee. In many cases that means end customers will have their stationery, cards and brochures in their hands the next day. This service ups the ante for trade printers to meet expectations of ever - shorter turnaround times from their clients and, in turn, their end clients.
That’s the intent, says LEP Colour Printers’ CEO, John Bromfield: “We believe this will be a game changer. We’re moving into uncharted territory, but we’re throwing it out there and seeing what the demand is. We’ve worked very hard over a number of years at lean manufacturing methodologies — some don’t believe it works, but we believe in it. I don’t know how or if our competitors will be able to respond, or emulate the same service.”
The same-day dispatch offer includes a complete range of business stationery products including digitally printed business cards, flyers, brochures and folded brochures as well as offset printed stationery. The company is providing a set guarantee on this same or next day service for over 1,800 products.
The decision to offer the service, and the guarantee, was not taken lightly, says Bromfield: “We do what we say we are going to do because it hurts our reputation if we drop the ball. Every printer knows it. You’re letting customers down not just on that particular transaction but it also affects your brand; it affects your reputation and any repeat business and so you can never afford to get it wrong.
“We’ve offered next-day dispatch on folded offset printed brochures on 150gsm weights for several months now. To my knowledge no one has followed suit as yet. It’s ground-breaking stuff, but it’s also very hard to copy if you don’t have similar workplace methodologies or practices in place.”
Lean manufacturing has long been a focus for LEP and it’s clearly paid off, as evidenced by the company’s facilities in Melbourne and Queensland which are almost identical. Every facet of the production process has been repeatedly analysed and streamlined and human contact points removed to drive jobs through the plants.
The company’s infrastructure investments mean LEP has no single point of failure in manufacturing processes, which run 24 hours a day. Both facilities run A1 Ryobi offset presses, Agfa CTP systems, Epson proofers, MBO Folders, Heidelberg cylinders and platens and a full suite of finishing equipment on both sites. There is a back-up for virtually every piece of equipment. Also installed in its Queensland site is a digital print centre, running an HP Indigo 5500 which is self-contained with its own finishing equipment.
“We’re seeing more printers outsourcing more of their work, particularly if they have the knowledge and confidence that the trade supplier won’t let them down,” says Bromfield. “If you put it out there and do what you’re say you’re going to do they take a lot of confidence from that. Printers consider that very important.” According to Bromfield, the print market is like most others: driven by end customers who are more informed and more demanding. The difference is that LEP accepts, and even relishes, that challenge.
“Customers want it now. They are more mobile, they expect more from services, and they won’t put up with bad deals. If you don’t do it they’ll go somewhere else,” he says. “So you need to deliver what you say you’ll deliver. We’ve found that some of our customers have started to leverage off our same-day, next-day service, using it for their own benefit in their own sales and marketing to their customers because they rely on what we can do.”
John Bromfield concludes: “That’s a good place to be.”