GEON opens downtown printing plant in Melbourne

Reversing a long-term trend that has seen commercial printing companies all but abandon the central business districts, the region’s largest sheetfed printer moves into Docklands.

Describing the move as an adaption to the current industry environment, Graham Morgan, CEO, (pictured below) said the site would not only service some of GEON’s largest corporate customers in the city but will also provide a retail outlet for visual communication products and services. He believes the Docklands site will increase speed to market and help reduce complexity in the supply chain, which he described as the company’s overall strategy.

The plant is centred on digital printing capacity with a formidable array of engines; HP Indigo 5000, Fuji Xerox 8000 and a Nuvera, with two HP DesignJets 5500. There is also an Agfa Anapurna flat-bed inkjet press as well as a solid finishing capacity including a Horizon collator and a Duplo trimmer and stitcher.
The overall effect is of an industrial strength printing plant capable of meeting most requirements for the city. Offset printing jobs will be sent to the company’s Mount Waverly plant.

The innovative initiative will test the received wisdom that when jobs can be transmitted easily in digital form, the location of the actual printing equipment is of no consequence. It is operating on the basis that as Docklands area is developed an increasing number of large companies in close proximity will come to regard the GEON site as their local printer.

The site will employ at least two sales personnel to develop business in the close-by canyons of the metropolis.

The Docklands opening is part of a continuing strategy of realignment of the company’s numerous sites throughout Australia and New Zealand. It follows on from the inauguration of the huge Highbrook plant in Auckland earlier in the year and the closure of the Agency Graphic World site in Sydney. Next on the list is the opening of its new Queensland site in September.