Snap back home for major industry conference

The two-day conference was an upbeat combination of “inspiration, motivation and information,” according to an observer. Delegates were welcomed by Grant Vernon, managing director of the franchise chain, (pictured) who outlined some of the strategies for the group to expand its operations and services, for instance to capture a larger share of the corporate world’s business.


The theme of the conference Good to Great, was taken from management guru Jim Collins’ book of the same name, with the conference exploring how the group can adopt the management principles at both head office and franchisee level. Attitude is paramount in franchise operations today and a highlight of the conference included a motivational talk by 1960 gold medal Olympian and1500m world record breaker, Herb Elliot.

The core information session centred on a presentation by Boston-based Info Trends’ director, Charlie Corr, who set forth his view of the market trends and issues affecting the industry. In a wide ranging report he proclaimed

The global print on demand sector is achieving growth rates of around 20.8 per cent CAGR compared to only 1.7 per cent for the whole industry.

Market share for digital production print remains a fraction of the overall market, but offset print is now definitely in decline, even though it will represent the lion’s share of the market for many years to come.

Digital impressions are increasing in value as mono print migrates to colour.

The three top factors for buyers outsourcing digital colour copying/printing were job size, print/substrate quality and finishing.

During the conference delegates were able to inspect the latest HP Indigo 5000 digital press, which was the centerpiece of the Currie Colour Express, parked outside in the Burswood carpark. A black-tie dinner rounded off the event, which was generally acclaimed by delegates as “the best conference ever.”

There are 147 Snap franchise stores in Australia.