Steele steps up as Price departs Stream

Change of guard at the top of the $8 million print management business takes industry by surprise.

Clive Steele (pictured) is the new head honcho at Stream Solutions replacing company founder Andrew Price who will leave parent company Toll in May. As the new general manager, Steele will inherit the hot seat as the debate over the use of print management companies continues to rage.

Steele joined the independent Stream Solutions in 2001 as deputy managing director, before it was bought by Toll three years ago. Since then he has worked alongside Price to build the company into the leader in the amount of printing it sources both in Australia and overseas. He was involved in winning all the major print management contracts, including the Victorian Government tender. Industry observers estimate Stream is responsible for almost $300 million worth of print every year.

According to a Toll spokesman, the company’s ownership presents a great opportunity for Stream to build on its current position as the clear market leader in the print and communications sector through the integration of Toll’s unique cradle to grave document management suite of services.

Price (pictured) and Tom Pongrass, formerly of Websdale Printing, founded Stream in 1998. It pioneered many of the corporate print buying practices now common throughout the industry, often generating fierce opposition from printers who accused it of simply taking a cut from their profits by coming between them and their customers.

The furore made no impression on iron man Price, who sometimes revelled in his notoriety as the man printers love to hate. In recent years, a growing acceptance of the role of print managers has taken some of the heat from the debate, although strong views are still held and often expressed.

Price intends to take an extended holiday in Europe in the northern summer before returning to Australia later in the year. It is unlikely the industry has seen the last of him.