The 35-year-old business retains a shop front in Rotherham where customers can and do walk up to place orders, discuss print and then later collect those orders.
“I like to think that we’re the most expensive printer in Yorkshire,” says John Brailsford. Again it is a claim that has not been tested and is almost certainly untrue. His point though is that the business thrives on interactions between his people and the small business owners, club secretaries and individuals that make up the customer base.
There is a website, but it is not there for customers to click, upload artwork and pay with their only interaction through a chatbot of some kind. “The way we win work is not necessarily about price,” he says. “They come in to talk to us, explain that ‘this is what I want to achieve’. We will perhaps create the design and produce a sample and they will place the order. If it’s a commodity printed item, they can buy that online. Anything out of the ordinary, we can help.
“A disappointed customer is our worst nightmare, but we can reprint because the margin is there in what we do. We like to take our time. The key thing for us is to look after the customers.”
That has driven the investment decisions. The company was one of the early adopters of the Xerox Iridesse, giving the opportunity to print two colours beyond CMYK. Now it has installed the first Morgana SC6000 digital cutting unit in the country. It is having an immediate impact.
“We were sending lots of different cutting work out to the trade and we couldn’t continue to do that economically, we needed to find an alternative,” Brailsford says.
An order for 20 presentation binders might need tabs to be cut and drilled. That now makes sense, all passing through the Morgana with all set up information accessed via a barcode printed by the Iridesse and accessed by the cutting table. “It’s a very automated process,” he adds. “We can kiss cut whatever labels we want – we’re no longer restricted to the templates from pre cut sheets, and we can print on more of the label because we can be more accurate with print and cutting. This is a more innovative way of doing things. Now we don’t really know the limits. We don’t know what we can’t do.”
Round cornered business cards will be high on the list, likewise more creative invitations and car stickers.
What the business will not be doing is investing in a larger press. Brailsford says: “That would take us into a different market which is very competitive. We are already finding that customers are changing how they buy print. What used to be a 10,000 run is now four or five runs of 2,000 with frequent design changes, with our personal touch.
“A company like Instantprint, even just a couple of miles up the road, does not affect us. They are suited to the straightforward commodity stuff. It’s not like that here. In print there is a place for everybody.”
MORE FROM THE MAGAZINE
MORE ON JOHN BRAILSFORD PRINTERS
