Printing.com set for massive rollout across Australia and NZ

In the first local news to surface since Printing.com announced its plans late last year to expand across the globe, Astra Print has muscled out some of Australia's largest printing companies to become the company chosen to roll out the UK company's franchise model.

Printing.com functions through a 'hub and spoke' model with all the work obtained from the franchise outlets performed at a major commercial print centre, and this model will be retained for Australian and NZ.

Astra Print already has prior experience with its similar Printstop model that it has grown to 14 retail print stores throughout NZ over the past year. The company plans on adopting Printing.com technology to its existing model to help it accelerate growth throughout the country, with all stores to be rolled out underneath the 'Printstop powered by Printing.com' banner.

In Australia the franchise will be introduced to the market as Printing.com with the launch scheduled for around the middle of next year. Astra Print is currently exploring its options as to how the production will be performed, with the most likely options emphasized as either purchasing an existing print facility in Australia or opening up a new greenfields site.

Astra Print aims to have 65 retail outlets open across NZ within two years, and claims it ultimately hopes to open up as many as 150 Printing.com outlets across Australia over a four to five year period.

Steve Messenger, chief executive of Astra Print (pictured right), says his company's existing experience with its Printstop model will provide it with the sufficient horsepower to attack the New Zealand printing market, as well as providing it with a solid platform to launch into Australia.

“It means we will reach our growth targets a lot sooner than going it alone,” says Messenger.

“They chose Astra ahead of Australian printers because we'd already tested the market here and demonstrated that the concept works. They liked the management capabilities and the way we've adopted technology.”

Messenger says his company is not ruling out the option of working in partnership with an existing Australian print provider.

“We would not exclude any possibilities at this stage. It is going to be a big operation so we have to consider all opportunities for getting to market as soon as possible,” he says.

Printing.com opened its first store in the UK in 1998 and has since grown to become one of its most significant print providers, expanding to over 140 outlets throughout the country. It targets small to medium businesses and offers fixed prices that it claims are often 50 percent below the going rates. Delivery times are guaranteed or the job is performed for free.
Presenting at the Ipex Inward Mission last November, Tony Rafferty, CEO of Printing.com, claimed he was confident the business concept would make a smooth transition into the Australian and NZ print market.

“Why shouldn't they be able to secure the same sort of results we've achieved in the UK?” says Rafferty. “We want to help the master franchise to use all the available resources of Printing.com to start rolling out the franchise in their respective country.”