Print Scotland needs to attract members from a broader swathe of the industry than just traditional litho based commercial printers according to incoming president Michiel Molenaar.
The CEO of Irvine carton printer KennedySmith is at the start of a two year stint as head of the Scottish trade body, taking over from Susan Graham, director of FLB. “Print Scotland used to be a litho printer organisation traditionally, but printing is broader than this. The work is changing and we need to diversify: we need to attract members from wide format, from digital print, from label printers or corrugated. Let’s explore what we can do to help them.”
In the first instance he says, many are small businesses that could benefit from HR, legal and other assistance that the organisation can provide to small businesses. What is good for a company doing one type of printing can apply to other styles of printing he says.
“I came, initially, from an agricultural background rather than the print industry, and have been engaged in the packaging industry for the past 20 years. And perhaps it is as a relative outsider that I can see the huge opportunities ahead for an innovative, creative and productive print industry here in Scotland.
“Print Scotland can and will respond to the current climate by moving with the times and investing in the latest printing technology to develop and enhance our productivity.”
KennedySmith has embraced this with installation of a highly automated Koenig & Bauer Rapida X106 this summer with a logistics system to move pallets toad from the press.
The organisation has had success in attracting associate members and a scheme is being drawn up to help them gain something from their support. But it is the more challenging task of attracting a disparate group of print providers from across the country to see that they share common issues that can be discussed within the organisation.
“There are people across the country, commercial printers even, that haven’t joined up. But let’s not limit ourselves to litho printers. All of us are in a similar industry operating a similar process, albeit it with different applications. We need Print Scotland to expand. We are fresh to the role. Let’s do something about it.”
Molenaar will be supported by managing director of Graphic Warehouse Richard McCombe as vice president with Garry Richmond as full time director of Print Scotland.
