CJ King bids farewell to the West Coast after 23 years as a Perth printing institution, moving its total operation across the country to sunshine and surf on the Gold Coast. The grand exodus sees the offset and digital specialists streamline services for its loyal customer-base and grow the business into new markets from its new east coast mega factory.
Market economics in WA, along with persistent pressure from mining, have long slammed manufacturing industries in the west, and print is no exception. With increasingly more work creeping in from the eastern states and New Zealand, it was only a matter of time before the numbers led the way for CJ King. The shutters dropped in WA for the last time on 20th December.
- West coast to Gold Coast - the perfector has landed
Speaking with Print21 Chris King, founder and director of CJ King, said, “There wasn’t too much fanfare in the end, but there were tears in our eyes. A whole lot of blood, sweat and tears went into making the last 22 years a success over there. But in the end we feel it’s the right thing to do.”
CJ King’s new Queensland facility at Biggera Waters has been running as a secondary site for the business since 2007. Prior to the big move it housed the dedicated digital operation, built around a four-colour HP Indigo 7000 and a six-colour Indigo 5500. Once everything is locked in place the current kit will be joined by the mighty eight-colour Heidelberg A2 long perfector from Perth, as well as a diverse range of finishing gear.
To stake its claim as a national presence, the Queensland branch was originally set up to handle an influx in jobs headed for the east coast and New Zealand, now well over 65% of business for CJ King. Centralising the operation in the Biggera Waters site comes under King’s overall strategy to expand into new markets, but he remains focused on servicing its WA customers.
“In 20 years we’ve built up a very loyal customer-base, and so with manufacturing moving to Queensland, we will prioritise WA jobs to ensure we still deliver on deadline. And any additional delivery stuff, we absorb that,” he says.
The herculean haul took more than seven semi-trailers, with the eight-colour Heidelberg perfector alone taking up three trucks. The new state-of-the-art site clocks in at 1200 square metres, with a growth option for 500 more, with the business geared towards an increasingly multi-disciplined team of operators.
Running top-of-the-line hardware is one thing, but for King the biggest investment for this new phase of the business is in its people. Already five new service people have joined the team, with customer relations occupying centre-stage as a point of differentiation for the business moving forward.
“Even as it stands we’ve only touched about 1% of Queensland. We’re only just getting our feet on the ground. That’s the exciting thing; we sort of get to start fresh in a new market. And it’s a competitive one, but then we’re running the biggest and fastest press, and the biggest digital set-up on the Gold Coast. That’s a good place to start,” says King.