The biggest cannot afford to rest on their laurels, at least not if they want to remain the biggest in a market where differentiation is not clear cut. This maxim applies to Route 1, the trade print arm of the Bluetree Group, where Phil Tasker has been in charge for just less than a year.
The business has come out of the Covid period in good shape. Aside from the group’s rapid creation of a medical products division, Route 1 was able to supply Covid related print materials and found that where some parts of its customer base were quiet, others were very busy with orders. This diversity of end industries served kept Route 1 going, albeit that like every other printer, it was hit by an immediate dive in sales when lockdown was declared.
“The business did suffer in terms of orders and revenues. Since then business has returned to preCovid levels and we are trading ahead of where we were preCovid,” he says. But it’s not the same type of business. Orders which might have been for 20,000 DL folded leaflets are now 10,000 DL folded leaflets.
The downward shift in volumes has been joined by an increasing number of customers who, hit by rising paper and energy costs, have switched off the litho press. The digital print and the finishing remains, but the longer run and multi section litho work is placed with the trade printer. “It means that we have to shift and adapt and offer support to printers. For example, we have been able to use our buying power to minimise the impact of paper price rises on our customers.
“There has been a shift, not necessarily in the number of jobs or customers, but a shift in the volumes required for each job and there has been a shift in the product mix with the biggest growth in stitched and perfect bound books,” he says. The biggest growth is in runs from 50 or 100 to around 5,000 units, though longer runs are still there along with the longer run books.
The majority of orders are for print on paper, delivered through a unique line up of technologies. The factory, close to Rotherham, has three B2 Indigos, the latest a 100K; three B1 and a B2 Heidelberg Speedmasters, two XL106 long perfecters with Cutstar and UV curing; two Screen Truepress 520 inkjet lines; a Fuji Jetpress 750 which prints all the business cards that pass through the business; and a Landa S10P. The latter was installed four years ago and was introduced to customers through an open day on the eve of the pandemic. A further open day is ear marked for later this year.
There are also flatbed HP Scitex machines for large format products covering signage, posters as well as pop-up and eyeleted banners. As yet there is no offering for labels or packaging, but it’s a “never say never” from Tasker. “However, we are focusing on the core proposition and product lines at the moment. We want to make sure that we are delivering the best service for printers across these lines.” A Bobst Novacut and Moll creating and gluing line indicate that Bluetree has a foundation on which to build a carton offering and has some knowledge of what is required through packaging up the millions of face masks produced during the Covid period.
The strategy of focusing on core products is working, at least by judging from feedback on Trustpilot and Google he says. “It’s what printers are looking for from a trade supplier,” he adds.
That means Route 1 must deliver on time and to consistent quality regardless of how the work is printed. A GMG colour server helps ensure that work is reproduced accurately across the technologies. The printer has to be as technology agnostic as possible. Any job, apart from business cards, can be printed on any other the presses. And it has to be able to move jobs from one machine to another should the need arise.
Most of this is handled through the company’s automated workflow aided by the production control team which “plays a huge part” in ensuring smooth production is maintained. “The software though goes more than halfway to managing the scheduling and job planning,” says Tasker. With the greater sophistication of software and artificial intelligence, it is clear that more and more of this decision making will be in the hands of the algorithms.
Business cards remain on the Fujifilm Jetpress, housed in its own factory within a factory along with a Harris & Bruno coater, Rollem cutter/slitter and MGI 3D digital varnish finishing line. The business aims to make sure its cards are the best in the UK and he says there is no other press to match the Jetpress in being able to hold out reversed out white text at very small format against a solid colour background.
Its B1 format Landa S10P is now a reliable part of the production arsenal. Says Tasker: “We have had exceptional support from Landa. They have helped with the integration of the machine into the production workflow. They have done a fantastic job and we are very happy with the results.”
Whatever the destination, each file from a Route 1 customer undergoes a 30-point artwork check, which couples automatic file checking with a manual check. “If it fails in preflight, we can put it right,” he says. It both helps with customer satisfaction and helps prevent errors reaching plate production and then the press. If a mistake gets this far, the problem will lead to reprints, unwanted waste and disruption. And cost. It is, says Tasker, about getting it right first time “which is what most customers want from us. We will make sure it’s right.” With the volume of jobs that pass through the workflow, there will inevitably be the occasional job that makes it to press. Press operators are encouraged to spot and flag errors rather than to assume that this is what the customer wants.
Among the core products is an expanded focus on perfect bound and even case-bound books. This results from the acquisition of Kingsbury Press and the consolidation of that business from Doncaster to the main Bluetree site and using space released by the medical division.
“The idea is that the expertise from Kingsbury Press can help Route 1 provide a leading range of books for trade customers and expand that range together with finishing options for Route 1 customers,” Tasker says. “Kingsbury has deep expertise in complex finishing and the processes involved and where we have a call for that type of project, Route 1 can call on the pool of knowledge and service that Kingsbury has. We want to ensure that our customers have the best possible experience of dealing with the group.”
Equipment has been moved over from Doncaster including foiling, case making and casing in lines, a Kolbus perfect binder which has been installed in Unit B and Kingsbury’s Speedmaster CX102. This has replaced an SX102 alongside the other litho presses in Unit A.
Production capacity has also been increased by installation of a Hunkeler Gen8 cutting line and the unhooking of the Tecnau finishing lines which had operated inline with its two Screen TruePressJet 520s to run as standalone finishing lines. Running reel to reel means the presses can run at full speed, thus increasing capacity and ending the bottleneck around the need to guillotine inkjet printed work which can now be processed on the Hunkeler. It provides additional flexibility for scheduling as the inkjet presses can be used for a wider variety of work rather than section work they were intended to handle when installed. There are plans for further stitching capacity next year to alleviate an anticipated bottleneck as demand for multi-section work increases.
The company has already installed two Multigraf Touchline folders this year to handle the rush of greetings cards orders anticipated for peak season in October and November. This will ease a perennial cause of bottlenecks at that time of year. “That is really important for Route 1 customers,” he says.
That customer base, comprised entirely of printers, some creative agencies and other resellers (and absolutely no direct customers) is showing steady growth. “We are very selective in who we will deal with. Every week we have business try to sign up with us that do not meet our criteria,” he says.
Appreciation of the role that trade printers can play is increasing. Tasker explains: “We’ve enjoyed success where our customers have decided because of cost increases, and especially the surge in energy prices, to switch off their litho press and have instead changed their business model to become a print provider by working with a trade supplier. We only market to the trade.”
That can include provision of flat sheets for in-house finishing. A commercial printer may have culled its litho print operation, but can continue to offer a digital print service and needs the skills and experience in finishing to cope. However, the volume of work passing through finishing may be reduce through the use of trade print. Bringing sheets back into the business helps justify the retention of finishing skills and staff, so can make sense for the printer. However, when the job requires skills or machinery that the printer does not have themselves, the trade supplier will be able to cope.
Route 1 is happy to help, and it goes further, he says. “We want to help these companies market themselves and grow. They have the advantage of knowing their customers and their business so are placed to service them. We have to make sure that the team here is able to support these companies in the transition when they can no longer support in house manufacturing. We are the behind the scenes printer.”
The Route 1 portal has also been upgraded with the aim of improving customer experience and making it easier to find the product types that customers are looking for. There is appreciation that not everything can be specified or ordered on line and bespoke items are part of the package. Account managers on the end of the phone are the answer. Again the experience from Kingsbury Press helps. Its reputation has been built on delivering some of the most complex bookwork possible with any number of formats, additional finishes and so on.
As the Kingsbury team has been integrated in the wider Bluetree group, some of that is rubbing off on the Route 1 operation.
“The priority for the business at the moment is integration with the Kingsbury team,” says Tasker. “We want to harness the expertise of Kingsbury Press to allow Route 1 to provide the leading range of books for trade customers, and to expand the both the range of books and finishing possibilities we offer to Route 1 customers. A project that requires complex finishing and processes need the expertise and experience that the Kingsbury team has. Now if a Route 1 customer has a very complex book project, we can take it on and work with the Kingsbury people. What we want is for our customer to get the best experience possible in dealing with the group and for Route 1 Print to be an excellent supplier in this area.”
As much as the production base and online portal, this is recognition that print remains a people business and that says Tasker, people “can add real value in terms of the service we deliver”.
The team of account handlers, marketing and sales executives amounts to 49 staff across both internal and external support.
The focus on the core proposition means guarding against mission creep. For example, Route 1 does not offer a fulfilment service. Compilation of kits is something for the customers to organise while it is simply not practical for Route 1 to offer warehousing facilities despite the vast amount of warehousing space in the neighbourhood, including a vast highly automated unit being built right behind Bluetree’s production site. That said, Route 1 will be able to manage some limited split deliveries, say equal amounts from a 50,000 run job to five delivery addresses. “We have to manage the complexity of this. We produce the volumes of print, but we simply cannot offer the fulfilment given the space that would be needed,” says Tasker.
There is a multitude of directions that Route 1 might take in future. Some were under consideration on the eve of the pandemic when Unit B was intended to be home for promotional items and apparel. Covid changed all that, forcing a focus on retrenchment and on maximising what the business already had. Route 1 can provide T-shirts, water bottles, totes, mugs and more, but it is not a major part of the offering. Tasker’s role has been to maintain this edge, ensuring that service levels befit the UK’s largest trade printer. “We like to lead the industry in fast turnaround, to deliver the best level of service we can. What we want is for our customers to have the best possible experience.”
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