A new generation is setting its own expectations about how printing businesses are put together and what is the right technology mix to grow the market.
Collaboration and synergy are the key words in the strategy for the partners of Allclear printing in the Brisbane suburb of Yeronga. The three working partners – Anthony De Stefani, Jason Milligan and Damian Bresnehen – are developing a printing business, now called Allclear Print and Signs, which is expanding well beyond the original offset business bought ten years ago.
Their latest investment is the second B2-size HP Indigo 10000 in Brisbane (the first went into IPG) from the Currie Group, which joins two existing HP Indigo 5500s. It catapults them into the front line of technology with a significant expansion of production capability.
When De Stefani and Milligan first bought out the original founders of the 15-year old Allclear business, there were six employees and under a million-dollar turnover in the small commercial printing operation. The two had worked together since apprentices in Image Studio in Brisbane. To De Stefani it was an inevitable step to look for his own business and when the opportunity came he asked his mate to join him.
“I really wanted to have a crack. I knew I could do it and Jason was just as keen,” said De Stefani.
Dividing the sales and operation responsibilities between them, their main assets were ambition, a willingness to risk a lot and an energetic drive to grow the business. They later invited Bresnehen, a former supplier with his own business, to bring his wide-format expertise and contacts into the mix. Then the redoubtable Leo Moio of PMG fame became the fourth member of the group.
“We were doing OK and I was looking for opportunities. I phoned Leo after missing out on the Moore business here. I knew we needed a national footprint. We had some discussions, he came up to see us and liked what he saw,” said De Stefani, who is the public face of Allclear.
The eclectic mix of skills, talents and connections that make up the company’s owners is reflected in the technology strategy, which relies heavily on the Currie Group. Paul Roberts, Currie Queensland manager, has been closely linked to the company’s developments over the years.
They were the main ‘go to’ supplier for Allclear when the company began to grow. Currie Group delivered the A2 four-colour Shinohara press and ECRM CTP for the first expansion, and followed through on the subsequent HP Indigo installations.
“I liked it that Currie was Australian owned and that David Currie was always there on the end of the phone,” recalls De Stefani. “He gave me the opportunity where some of the others wouldn’t.”
The drive to grow the business and extend the product offering is at the core of Allclear. For instance, the wide format business is not only producing print but also operating its own signage team that looks after sites as far north as Gladstone.
The factory at Yeronga, the third premises in its history, is growing rapidly, taking over the building next door, building a new warehouse out the back with imminent plans for further expansion. There is an almost tangible air of enterprise between the three working partners.
With six salespeople on the road, including De Stefani taking the lead, the number of jobs going through the business has doubled in recent times. Like everyone else they are battling the ongoing slide in the price of print that De Stefani reckons is down 15-20% over the past five years. “The technology makes it easier. Where we used to do 30 jobs a day, now we’re able to do a lot more than that,” he said. “We win more than we lose.”
Since the HP Indigo 10000 went in last month it has produced record numbers of throughput. It has fitted smoothly into the production mix where there is little discrimination between the choice of technologies. It’s a question of what capacity is available, not whether it is offset or digital. Turnaround is everything.
The three working partners at Allclear represent a new generation of print entrepreneurs. They care little for the traditional accolades of the industry, never enter the awards or attend industry events. Focused intently on their own business and its future, they generate a creative response by working together, setting and meeting their own expectations.