Salmat to use local printers for SME network

The shortest distance between printer and letterbox is the goal for the marketing services giant in its new focus on small to medium businesses.

In a plan to leverage its vast network of 18,000 letterbox ‘walkers’ around the country, Salmat is launching a service to encourage local businesses to use printing for direct marketing. It already delivers 5 billion catalogues to households on behalf on such corporations as Big W, Coles, Myer and Woolworths.

"The old world of mail will have a resurgence with more targeted messaging and the benefit of a colour platform,” said Grant Harrod, CEO of Salmat.

Salmat shares this market nationwide with rival PMP with an estimated split of 65 to 35 % in its favour. In recent months it has acquired a number of small mail delivery businesses around Australia to bolster the new SME service.

Pictured: Keeping it local, (l-r) Chad Barton, chief financial officer, Grant Harrod, CEO, Peter Anson, chief operations officer.

The aim is to launch a website in six to eight weeks where local businesses can create their own marketing collateral for a targeted distribution area.
Salmat trialled the Local Direct Network (LDN) for six months claiming significant positive customer feedback for the plan. The company will develop shopfront locations in local shopping centres to allow businesses to interact with account managers. The aim is to develop a  ‘cradle to grave’ service facilitating complete fulfilment of all marketing needs.

Businesses are encouraged to create DL-style fliers for local distribution containing a targeted offer to customers. Salmat will source printing from a panel of providers, with the aim of giving the work to the nearest printer.
In other print related developments, the company also foresees a possible resurgence of essential mail with the development of transpromo. It currently delivers 1.2 billion essential mail packs although according to Grant Harrod, CEO, “there is a subtle decrease in the amount of mail in favour of electronic deliver.”

Salmat is responsible for 60% of all commercial mail lodged in Australia.
The company is about to significantly upgrade its high-speed colour presses, most likely with Océ equipment, in a bid to encourage clients to make better use of the essential mail channel. It is currently a leader in the transpromo field on account of buying HPA some years ago, with its range of Fuji Xerox and Kodak high-speed presses.

Harrod is a strong advocate of the use of multi-channel marketing and is positioning Salmat to be able to facilitate communications across email, call centres and websites in addition to mailbox delivery. He announced a major investment in developing the company’s Lasoo dynamic catalogue website. The pre-buy site received 1.7 million visits during July.