Thomson’s GraphiPress could easily be mistaken for an old-fashioned regional printing company. It has a family-owned heritage, the Heidelberg press out the back and a local client list; it even has its own finishing and laminating equipment in response to the distance from major centres where these processes can be outsourced.
But under Donald Thomson’s astute and determined stewardship, GraphiPress is no relic of a bygone age; rather it’s a model of how printing and printers are adapting to the new world.
There are not many HP Indigo presses close to the Murray River border between Victoria and NSW. This is old school offset country with a little bit of digital ‘lite’ thrown in. The closest HP Indigo installation is at Wagga Wagga, where school photo book operator, MSP Photography, operates two machines, supplying albums nationwide.
Now there is another in Albury, the border town on the Hume Highway where Donald Thomson runs his family printing company, GraphiPress. He’s just installed an HP Indigo 3550 from the Currie Group in the space where his prepress equipment used to sit. He’s also sprung for a Fujifilm Acuity 1600 LED wide-format that sits alongside in what has become the new digital printing centre of the business.
This type of technology investment is a big call for a regional printer but then Thomson knows that his country customers, the so-called ‘cow cockies,’ are getting smarter in their own marketing, influenced by digital technology and demanding new and better ways of communicating with their customers.
He relates how his bloodstock clients used to order 2000 catalogues for the stud sales twice a year, detailing the full complement of bull’s semen available that season. Now they are looking at shorter, more targeted runs, dedicated to certain breeds and targeted to buyers with an interest in those breeds. This is digital printing country and Thomson is keen to develop ways of adding more value for his customers.
The same is happening with local wineries, which are enjoying a lot of success. As he tells it, they’re also family owned and run but the children have gone away to university and come back with business or marketing degrees. They’re fired up to improve the labels, keen to do direct marketing in short runs. Again, digital printing country but importantly it has to be HP Indigo quality when it comes to presenting the brand.
Two sides of the digital border
There are two parts to the GraphiPress business at Kiewa Street in Albury. Out the back there is a spacious, spotlessly clean offset printing factory with a Heidelberg 52 eight-colour as the power plant. Away from the urban pressures it’s possible for the printers to enjoy an airy, environment with lots of space. There are no health and safety problems here.
This is the conventional printing business, the same as his father ‘Thommo’ operated for years; the same as many of his peers in Albury. But Thomson is acutely aware that it’s difficult to differentiate or add value to offset printing; price competition rules. There may no longer be the “gigantic battles” for the few headline jobs such as the local bank’s annual reports, but it’s a tough market in a town such as Albury.
After 30 years in the business, 13 since he took it over from his father, he’s working on a time-line plan for the business, a strategy that takes into account the forces shaping the printing industry. It is no longer the industry his father operated in. He believes the concept of craft is lost for much of the work now, but takes pride in the industry knowledge still used within the business that won GraphiPress a Gold Pica for a six-colour brochure.
Print smarter, not more
It is as if he has two printing businesses; offset and digital, with different prospects and destinies. The rise of the internet hub printers, such as CMYKhub and LEP makes the prospect of buying another offset press even more remote. Such a huge investment would distort the company’s operations at a time when it is imperative to print smarter, not necessarily print more.
With customers arriving at the front counter asking for a better way of doing business, the question asked now is no longer ‘how much print do you want? But rather ‘what are you trying to achieve?’
GraphiPress is on its way to being a marketing partner with its customers, just like any go-ahead contemporary printing business in the metropolitan areas. Donald Thomson and his wife Leanne, are part of the transformation of the printing industry, proving you don’t need to be a big city printer to be at the cutting edge.