Printing.com pulls out of Australia

Fast-growing UK franchise, printing.com puts a hold on its plans to enter the Australian market.

The company first put a call out for Australian partners to act as both franchises and production hub early last year, with a view of establishing a local printing.com presence in late 2008.

According to Annabel Smith, divisional managing director, the radical shift in the economic landscape made the company re-evaluate its decision. “We had to question whether the timing was right, given the global economic situation and also the fact that a lot of our attention at present is focused on our newly-launched Master Franchise in the USA,” she explained.

Australia was not the only country that printing.com was keen to expand into; a similar call out was made to France at the same time as Australia and, is set to go ahead. 10 franchises from France are currently generating regular transactions and producing operational metrics which the company claims to be consistent “with any accomplished franchise in the UK.”

A statement from the company said that it had not ruled out Australia entirely, but would not be proceeding with establishing operations offshore until the economic cycle improves.  “We still firmly believe that the Printing.com concept would work well in Australia, and we remain keen to launch there in the future,” Smith said.