New Spicers brand swallows Dalton and iMedia

Two of Australia’s most prominent graphic arts industry brands are set to disappear from the local landscape with Dalton Paper and iMedia to be rolled into a soon-to-be rebranded Spicers company by June this year.

The ongoing brand rationalisation by parent company, PaperlinX, will see Spicers Paper rebranded as Spicers, with the new entity to include the products, services and workforce that previously came under Dalton Paper and iMedia brands.

In an exclusive interview with Print21, PaperlinX Australia’s group general manager, Andy Preece, said the brand rationalisation was prompted by the company’s desire to provide a single, simple business platform for customers currently dealing with multiple PaperlinX brands.

“The philosophy of the rationalisation is around clarity, and about delivering one business for our customers. We want to bring clarity to the marketplace,” said Preece. “We have several trading entities. Consider dealing with current business with two or three phone numbers and invoices. It’s both sensible and practical.”

According to Preece, the brand amalgamation is a customer-driven progression for PaperlinX’s local operations, and is part of an ongoing process of consolidation within the company’s stable of products and services.

“This is primarily client driven,” said Preece. “We’ve been operating as one business in the market place and this is the final part of the process. We’ve been operating as one business for some time.”

Given that the individual PaperlinX brands have been subject to ongoing consolidation, the brand rationalisation is not expected to result in any downsizing among staff, products or services, with existing multiple product portfolios to be rolled into one.

In fact, according to Preece, most existing customers will continue dealing with the same sales representatives as previously, with many reps already working across more than one brand.

The company says the conscious decision to remove the word ‘Paper’ from the existing Spicers brand was intended to allow the new entity retain recognition of its core paper division, while at the same time embrace the changing nature of the industry.

Preece believes that the inclusion of iMedia into the new Spicers brand will not detract from the company’s main paper focus. “Paper’s our core, and iMedia’s got wide-ranging synergies with our existing clients, the two will complement each other very well,” he said. Preece added that such brand consolidation was a necessary step for businesses to remain successful and relevant in the current market.

“The action of SKU rationalisation is a fluid and an ongoing practice for all paper merchants,” he said. “I see this as…what needs to happen in our industry, to keep matching the needs of our markets.”