New MD aims for Edward Dunlop to be market leader

Dragicevich, who began with Australasia’s second-largest paper merchant at the beginning of August, says he sees the business operating differently in a year’s time.

“We have some way to go in terms of our customer-service offering, and it is essential — with any business — that you develop a solid business platform on which to develop. You build that by getting the fundamentals right.”

In five years time, Dragicevich wants EDG to be Australasia’s most successful paper-distribution business. “I find fulfilling such challenges particularly satisfying, having taken the last two companies I ran — Tasman Insulation, and BJ Ball Papers [in New Zealand] in the early 1990s — from difficult situations to market leaders.”

He sees advantages in having worked both within and outside paper. “I have managed businesses in four different industries, paper being just one. Through that, I’ve experienced and developed a better all-round view on business management.”

Since his last exposure to the paper industry, he notes several changes.

“Major obvious changes include the use of paper, the way it’s marketed in Australia, and a shift in the grades being used. These are concerns for paper merchants. You need only look at annual reports — typically printed on specialty grades and high-end coated papers — now being offered electronically, which shareholders can print out on white copy paper.

“But countering these changes, is the fact that paper volumes in Australia have remained relatively robust; the paperless office will not be seen any time soon.

“The industry has also seen customer changes, with bigger printers getting bigger, the advent of national companies in the sheetfed market, and at the smaller end, an explosion of the on-demand market. These areas are taking away from the middle ground — the small to medium-size commercial printers.”

Dragicevich says strengths from EDG’s companies position the group well to grow business through all sectors of the paper industry.

“BJ Ball Papers in NZ is strong in the specialty end, with good presence in the general print market; Raleigh Paper successfully markets specifiable grades to the graphic design industry; while EDP has a long history of competing in the general print market — from small to large printers — and has a strong presence in the on-demand and office-products segments.

“It’s a well-balanced group, and every customer is important to us — regardless of size.”

He believes EDP’s history under Spicers’ ownership impacted upon how the business took itself to market.

“I really want to be able to take the blinkers off EDP and give it the opportunity, with the right sources of paper and the right strategies, to grow the business in the mainstream print markets.”