The bang of presses and the smell of toner are new sensations for the team at Designa Accessories, but the Caringbah-based designer watch and jewellery wholesaler is a quick study and eager to show that print is the best accessory of all.
Time was that a watch was a cherished antique, an inheritance, a living, ticking piece of history. Now it’s a fashion statement, a bracelet with the option of time-keeping, and it moves with the seasons. And if you’ve ever picked up a Guess or a Timex, Nautica or Maxum, the chances are it came through Designa Accessories. The family-run business was built on the foresight of founders Les and Lyn Veil, who saw the potential of this new ‘fashion’ accessory. Their son, Justin Veil, general manager, now runs the company with that same foresight and willingness to bring on board new ideas.
The Veils introduced Guess Watches to the local market in 1986 and built its brand identity as ‘Sexy, Young and Adventurous’, so much so it’s been the number one department store watch brand for the past eight years. And with their recent installation of the Ricoh C651EX, and inline Plockmatic booklet maker with crease trimmer, it’s not just watches that the Designa team are calling sexy and adventurous.
At the start of each season Designa Accessories launches their new range with a comprehensive catalogue for their resellers, detailing everything in the new line. This is an expensive exercise in a world of digital alternatives, online channels, apps and downloads, but the team at Designa Accessories agreed that value of print is well worth the outlay.
David Agostino is a man of many hats; he’s the IT manager, and now he’s even the guy who changes the toner. Agostino explains why this leading edge, designer brand chose to invest in print: “We’re a fashion brand. We have to maintain a certain pizzazz, you know. It’s got to look sexy, glamorous. For us it’s a crucial part of the marketing mix.”
Quite literally hot off the press next door, David stops to flick through a glossy, golden-hued tome packed with full-page beauty shots of their star products.
“We looked at a number of different options, but we were particularly impressed by the C651’s ability to render striking silvers, golds and flesh tones. There’s a lot of these in our brands, and it’s important that they really have to pop.”
- "It's got to look sexy, glamorous." - David Agostino, IT manager, Designa Accessories
The right fashion fit
To meet Designa Accessories’ glamour needs, the Ricoh C651 offers sparkling 1200 x 4800 dpi clarity and can handle up to 300 gsm paper stock for high-end jobs. Combined with the Plockmatic, the C651 is capable of producing the brand’s 52-page luxury brochures in-house, using print to tell that marketing story and actually add value to the business.
“The other factor that put the Ricoh solution ahead of the pack was that it was, at the time, the only solution on the market with the booklet perfector as an inline option. It’s not print per se that we were after, it’s the end product, the booklet, and we have certain space limitations. The C651 was the perfect jump-on for us as a light production machine. It literally offered the right scale and the right size. The right footprint in every respect.”
Relative newcomers to the world of print, Designa Accessories have already formed an invaluable support network, built out of the intensive training provided by Ricoh and local dealers, PrinterCorp, who spearheaded the sale and installation. Agostino is quick to praise PrinterCorp’s personalised service during this transition for the business, calling their support beyond the call of duty.
As the first inline Ricoh-Plockmatic solution handled by PrinterCorp, sales manager Phil Gilbert was especially pleased by the success Designa Accessories has enjoyed with the new equipment.
“We’d been in touch with them for a while, and saw they were outsourcing work that could easily be done in-house. The inline Ricoh solution was the clincher. They had basically no experience with production print, but after a couple of days intensive training on the equipment with Ricoh, they’ve really taken to it. The biggest challenge was actually getting it through the front door,” recalls Gilbert.
Now the C651 is well and truly bedded, Designa Accessories are only just discovering the true potential of print. Agostino says their major brochure runs are now coming in with nearly a third less wastage, but incidental jobs are on the rise.
“We’ve even opened up capacity to run more specialty jobs, printing light box backing sheets for the watch displays, and we’ve started offering flyers as a value add to some of our smaller customers. That’s the great value of print as a marketing tool.”