Rath describes these professionals (who gave tours of their operations to PELT participants) as “very honest” about their businesses and the future of the printing industry as well. He reports that he and his fellow students asked many tough questions about starting pay, highest possible eventual pay, whether there are typically layoffs during slow times of year, and much more, and he says all questions “were answered honestly and succinctly, so as to not give students an unrealistic view.”

Another PELT graduate, Hossein Hosseinian, explains PELT confirmed for him that a career in the print industry would be an exciting opportunity for him to put his cabinet-making experience to good use. “As I learned more about printing, I saw it matched my skills,” says Hosseinian, who is now working in production at Great Little Box Company, also in Richmond. “It felt like a good change for me. I learned about different materials and how to design.”

PELT, now entering its fourth year, is offered through PrintForward Printing and Imaging Association of B.C. and its Next Generation Task Force. Funding is provided by the federal government through the Canada-B.C. Workforce Development Agreement, under the Ministry of Post Secondary Education and Future Skills through the Community Workforce Response Training Grants. PELT is delivered by the NorthWest Skills Institute (NWSI), which offers a wide range of vocational certificate programs and health and safety training.

PELT covers all aspects of the industry from the history of print, production processes, bindery, printing presses, and prepress skills to job readiness.

With over 40 graduates and a job placement rate of 85 per cent, PELT continues to be a highly successful way of easing recruitment pressures and bringing new vitality to B.C.’s print industry. According to PELT program director Jennifer McConnell (who’s also director of operations at Royal Printers in New Westminster, B.C.), the program model has the potential to be replicated across Canada.

This model, a free, honest, and jam-packed introduction to the sector, requires participants to apply for full-time print industry jobs at graduation. It also provides job application training and assistance with job application submission. Rath explains that “revising my resume, coaching me on how to ace job interviews and even how to act after being hired (e.g. attend all social events held by the employer; don’t be anti-social),  was all invaluable information. I credit this to NWSI having direct contact with those employed in the printing industry for several decades. NWSI did not just give general advice.”

Rath also very much appreciated that he didn’t have to demonstrate the reasons why he was seeking job retraining in order to be accepted to PELT. Incidentally, Rath’s reason for taking PELT was to try something new, and because, as an experienced graphic designer and operator in the sign industry, he was frustrated. “No matter the position for which I was hired over the past few years, I was soon transferred to installation,” he says. “This is because most sign installers have long since left for the far more lucrative careers in the construction industry.”

Hosseinian was looking for a new career where he could apply existing skills and thought PELT looked interesting. Some students like Rath are also able to access financial support through WorkBC, free transit passes and more.

Weekly tours to local printing companies exposed PELT students to different print environments and how they can apply their skills in the corporate world.

Rath strongly valued the help with job applications, which led to him being employed very soon after PELT completion. “I very much appreciated that the NWSI applied for several jobs within the local printing industry on my behalf,” he says. “These jobs were based on my past work experience, and on in-class cleanliness, attendance, punctuality, and comprehension of class material. Thus, the potential employer was getting the real picture of my capabilities, while I felt confident the potential employer was not a flash in the pan or only interested in hiring temporary employees for the busiest season.”

Sector needs

NWSI senior program manager Cormac O’Reilly applauds the Next Generation Task Force and PrintForward team for leading the charge with this program in order to address the looming print industry labour shortage. “As part of curriculum development, the NWSI team visited and spoke with a number of PrintForward employer members to understand their needs, and the skills required for a person to start work within this sector,” he says.

From “this invaluable insight and input,” PELT was born. It covers all aspects of the industry right from the history of print, print production processes and planning, bindery, printing presses, creative suite prepress skills, packaging and mail, safety, Kaizen, and as mentioned, job readiness. Guest speakers are an important aspect of PELT, along with weekly tours to local printing companies that expose students to different print environments and how their training would be applied in real-life situations. “The tours were also a great way to help students see what type of printing company or opportunity they would like to get into following completion of the training,” says O’Reilly.

PELT is a free 10-week program packed with hands-on training, guest lectures, and tours of printing facilities in B.C.

PELT has also evolved over its three iterations, incorporating feedback from students and employers. “As a result, more tours, more hands-on projects and more guest speakers have been included,” O’Reilly reports.

Further, excellence in instructors continues to be a critical part of PELT. Sarah Dakiniewicz, owner of Stationery Bike Designs, is PELT’s newest. “My hope is to imbue my passion for print onto the next generation of print industry leaders,” she says. “I am looking forward to lending my experience and expertise to help fill in gaps we’re currently experiencing in the workforce. PELT is an integral component for our industry to not only survive, but to also thrive.”

The 2023 cohort of PELT with advisors and instructors.

National rollout?

With the print industry’s current labour state, no one could argue that a successful program like PELT would be useful across Canada. “We know the B.C. printing sector is not the only province facing challenges,” says O’Reilly. “With a proven training model, there is an opportunity to help expand the program nationally and ensure the amazing skills of experienced professionals are passed down to the next generation before they retire.”

Rath and Hosseinian are also in full support of the program going countrywide. Hosseinian notes that “my journey from cabinet making to printing underscores the potential for individuals from diverse backgrounds to find their niche in this industry. A national program would not only bridge skill gaps, but also encourage career transitions and foster a more diverse and skilled workforce.”

The Mitchell Group consists of Mitchell, its digital marketing division, Project28, which focuses on web development, CGI renderings, and augmented reality, and Pacific Bindery and trade services. It was founded in 1928 by Howard T. Mitchell as a financial newspaper. The company, which is now in its third generation of family ownership, has evolved with the times from being a financial newspaper and web offset printer to digital printing and now, a comprehensive visual-communications solutions provider.

As the print industry goes through a tectonic change brought about by the Internet of Things, many companies have been diversifying, actively future-proofing themselves. In the last few years, Mitchell has also engaged in this exercise. The question uppermost in the minds of senior leadership has been, “How do we prepare the business for another 90 years of success?”

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s Incomplete History of the VAG 1931-2023 is a perfect bound book containing imagery ranging from archival BW to professionally shot artwork.

New perspectives

As part of this resilience strategy, the company hasn’t hesitated to seek advice and talent from outside traditional print corridors to help create a new vision for Mitchell. One such hire or find was A.J. Rai, VP-sales, Mitchell, who won the 2023 Emerging Leader of the Year Award at the Canadian Printing Awards late last year. Not to downplay the role played by others at Mitchell, Rai has been pivotal in the company’s active adoption of digital solutions. I spoke to Rai about how Mitchell is successfully merging the physical and digital worlds and the perspective shift required among printers for the industry’s long-term success.

In June 2017, Rai, who has zero print experience, joined Mitchell as the company’s first digital media specialist. Born and raised in Richmond, B.C., Rai’s background was in tech strategy. A mutual friend introduced Rai to Mitchell’s executive team. During the initial meeting itself, Rai began to see gaps around how the print industry views digital vis-à-vis the rest of the world. In the print industry, digital often refers to digital printing whereas ‘digital’ is far deeper and complex than that; it can refer to innumerable tools and software that can support a business process, Rai explained.

“Print is the only industry where we use digital to mean print and not digital like it’s perceived by the rest of the world. When we talk digital, it always means digital printing, short-run, machine, equipment. This is great but when we look at it from the perspective of the rest of the world, it’s confusing,” he said. For instance, a prospective client may seek your help with digital advertising after seeing ‘digital’ as one of your services. However, you’re only offering digital printing. These genuine gaps in communication make us wonder what the industry is missing by not combining the physical and digital worlds.

A.J. Rai.

Rai came on board with the confidence that while print may have lost its power, it’s possible to use modern technology (read digital) to grow the overall business where print plays a significant role.

Rai’s first responsibility was to launch Mitchell’s digital solutions division. A consultative approach and in-depth knowledge of IT helped Rai understand Mitchell’s clients (old and potential), delve into the data in their CRM systems and how that could be used to address pain points in their businesses.

To understand this better, let’s look at real estate mailouts. Typically, developers send mass mailouts about a new property to residents in a specific postal code. Rai is suggesting a more targeted approach. Since developers have been in the business for decades, they must have data indicating which consumer is looking for what type of property. So, if a developer is looking to sell a 2BHK condo, they can, if needed, send personalized mailouts to consumers who are looking for a similar property. Such personalized, targeted mailouts would naturally generate a higher ROI than mass mailouts.

Another issue that Rai realized Mitchell could help their clients with was website development. Many clients either didn’t have a website or the site wasn’t user-friendly. By optimizing the website, Mitchell helped improve brand engagement.

“Your website is your first tool for sales and marketing. Through our own unique IPs, we’re able to watch people’s ‘behaviour’ on a website. We can map out how they’re interacting with the website. We can take this a little bit further as well by running it through our AI IPs where we record the data, look at the interactions and how it impacts creative. This data will allow us to decide the best places to include a call-to-action button to improve engagement and what colours/fonts/styles to use, as well as product positioning. We identify the metrics that need to be captured for our customers. This allows us to have a better understanding of the client’s goals and objectives and can help determine which Mitchell product can be offered to help the client,” he explained.

Scott Gray, executive VP, Mitchell Press, at the 2023 Canadian Printing Awards.

Micro data

The obvious corollary to the above discussion was the type of data that was being captured. Mitchell’s in-house term for that is micro data.

“It’s concise, intuitive, day-to-day data, actionable and readily accessible to anyone. Through Mitchell’s Project 28 discovery process it can be used immediately in an impactful manner, allowing you to maximize ROI,” Rai explained. “The data we’re collecting allows us to merge the physical and digital worlds and target consumers in specific ways.” Remember the real estate mailout example that was mentioned earlier?

In a nutshell, micro data refers to consumer behavioural data like demographics, time spent on website and pages viewed, purchase history, etc. Mitchell’s Project28, a joint venture with Toronto-based software firm Hypekraft Digital, focuses on capturing and interpreting that data at a granular level.

The Hip Trip Kit showcases the strengths of nanographic printing. It comprises a custom folding carton container, journal/sketch book, mini art prints, and custom baggage tags.

Enter the Nanographic press

Mitchell’s 360-degree approach didn’t pigeonhole them into one silo of the marketing conversation. Thus, they were able to convince customers to use Mitchell’s core business of ‘printing’ to achieve things like unboxing a brand-new shoe, customized packages, etc.

The Landa Nanographic Press is also playing a key role in Mitchell’s digital transformation plan.

In 2022, Mitchell became the first Canadian printer to invest in the Landa S10P Nanographic Printing Press. At that time, Gray said, “The Landa digital press pushes us to re-imagine print. Rather than producing 500 of one book, let’s create 500 books of one – completely personalized, with an incredibly high bar for quality. While mass customization was once a dream, today it’s a cost-effective reality.”

The Landa is allowing Mitchell to elevate its variable data printing capabilities. It has proven invaluable in Mitchell’s ability to blend digital technology and print.

“Landa allows us to take the metrics we’re getting from the web development, CRM, and ERP and transition them towards these [print] initiatives. We’ve done short runs for events and packaging for tea manufacturers. While sheetfed is great, Landa has simply automated the process,” explained Rai.

This gatefold cover book design called for accurate Pantone matching with solid colours, various screened elements and grey tints. It was printed on Mitchell’s Landa press.

Impact

Thanks to Mitchell’s company-wide focus on digital solutions and Rai’s vision to let data inform Mitchell’s client’s marketing decisions, the company’s overall sales volumes increased to pre-pandemic levels by early 2022, a fact that Gray highlighted in his application to nominate Rai to the Canadian Printing Awards program.

The team is now “adept at bridging the gap between print manufacturing and the digital realm. Leveraging data metrics and cutting-edge technology is helping the company transform the industry,” he added.

The session started with a lighthearted review of printing from the past and included an overview of the printing and publishing activities of Benjamin Franklin. He established the Pennsylvania Gazette, wrote several books, and published several columns. He is credited with printing innovations that improved clarity. Franklin also contributed to the development of the postal system. It’s interesting that the first post office in what is now Canada was opened in 1755 in Halifax, with Ben Franklin as the deputy postmaster for the Colonies. The key message shared was that Franklin diversified from print to include technology improvements, content creation and distribution services to meet customer needs.

Fast forward to the present

The speed of technology changes has shifted from decades to months. Today’s printers need to be aware of the changes and gage the impact on their business. They must also understand market needs as they evaluate print technology and capabilities, such as offset, dry toner, UV inkjet, water-based inkjet, HP Indigo LEP, and the recently introduced nanography printing.

Successful commercial printers have embrace diversification, just as Ben Franklin did. According to a recent study by Printing United, “Fifty-six per cent of commercial printers are moving into adjacent print markets” including signs and graphics, packaging, direct mail services and promotional print and apparel.

In part to overcome labour challenges and to improve efficiency, robots and robotic capabilities have been added to print and finishing equipment, which has decreased production time and the amount of labour required.

The future is now

For many, the use and application of artificial intelligence (AI) is in the future, but it has become a part of our daily lives. AI features are embedded in many of the business and communication applications we use daily and in the advanced workflow tools and processes.

AI can automate prepress, file analysis, colour correction, image enhancement, order management, job routing, scheduling, and quality control to reduce turnaround time, minimize errors, and to ensure a smoother production process. Integrating AI into print management software tasks such as estimating, quoting, and job tracking can automate these jobs, thus reducing manual labour and saving time.

In my experience, successful companies from past, present and future need to be ready for ongoing change. This requires strategy, action, execution and monitoring to ensure you’re on track. Successful leaders will have a combination of business and technical skills required to succeed. Companies that understand markets, customer needs, employee needs, and deliver value will continue to grow.

Bob Dale is vice-president of Connecting for Results, the premier management consulting company focused on the graphics communications industry. He can be reached at b.dale@cfrincorporated.com.

This column originally appeared in the January/February 2024 issue of PrintAction.

While many in INSEAD’s academic community say climate change is the biggest threat to business in 2024, INSEAD also firmly believes that this is an area where businesses can be a force for good.

Climate change

The World Economic Forum’s (WEF’s) Global Risks Report 24 based on a survey of 1500 global leaders gave a similar perspective. Two-thirds of respondents rank environmental risks as “most likely to present a material crisis on a global scale” in 2024.

At the WEG annual general meeting in Davos, the patron of INSEAD’s Hoffmann Institute, Andre Hoffman, spoke about the need for long-term thinking in managing the environmental impacts of organizations.

Hoffmann said. “It’s the question of a functional economy… We need to make sure we understand the consequences and dependencies we have on the three main capitals: the social, the human and the natural. The idea of a business that is completely independent of nature [doesn’t] go very far.”

Geopolitical crises

The threat of geopolitical crisis looms large. Conflicts in Ukraine, the Middle East, and Sudan are obvious contributing factors, but other variables are at play. This year, 64 countries have elections, entitling about half of the world’s population to vote. Outcomes may intensify geopolitical tensions and lead to more conflict.

Social instability

Social instability can be the spark for, and a consequence of, geopolitical crises. It is also an area where businesses can have a positive impact.

The surge in AI-generated misinformation and disinformation is one of the catalysts for increased societal and political division. Furthermore, civil society is becoming less trusting towards leaders and institutions. The ingredients for polarisation and unrest are clearly present.

Income and wealth inequality

INSEAD sees income and wealth inequality as both a risk to business and an area where business can make a positive impact. The World Bank’s Gini Index indicates that income inequality has worsened following the Coronavirus pandemic. According to the World Bank, poorer countries took a bigger economic hit than richer countries in 2020. And generally, poorer households lost jobs and income at slightly higher rates than more affluent households, contributing to greater worldwide poverty and inequality.

These global trends suggest a challenging time ahead. However, with its critical role in society, business (a more competent and ethical institution than governments, NGOs, and the media, according to the 2024 Edelman Trust Barometer) has power. With this power comes responsibility. The responsibility to function as a force for good. In fact in the Edelman Trust Barometer, 62 per cent of respondents expect CEOs to manage changes occurring in society, as well as in their organization.

So, we are in a testing period no doubt. But not without agency. Business leaders, in print and elsewhere can make a difference, levering and justifying the trust that the general public has in their competence and ethics. By promoting responsible choices, by implementing sustainable practices and sourcing, by taking part in community initiatives and sponsorships, and by supporting charities and just causes. And also, very simply, just by continuing to set an example in terms of integrity and passion, your business sits on the right side of the line, a force for good.

John Blyth is marketing and communications manager, Graphic Communications Group, Ricoh Europe

Now, don’t get me wrong; the industry has made great investments and strides into assembling some of the greatest and coolest technology out there. From new advancements in sheetfed printings to short-run digital print, variable capabilities, web-to-print, and expanded colour gamut, the list goes on. But how do we perceive these advances against what’s happening in other industries that are inhabited by our (as well as potential) clients? Print lovers who have lived in our industry over the past decades will tell you there is still a place for print in the world, that it means something to folks and can still be useful to organizations outside the publication sector. But do we really agree with that? More importantly, do our future customers and partners agree with that? Do we know our future customers? Why is it that we, as a collective group, only see advancements in technology as a way to better serve our current crop of customers, a group that is constantly dwindling due to market variables. Have we thought about the lack of knowledge regarding print in the digital-native generation, which includes millennials and the groups that came after them. With the age of AI (artificial intelligence) upon us, how will we, as an industry, shift focus to educate the world on print.

Power of data

It’s time for us to not only look at print technology, but also how we can incorporate print into existing tech. Online privacy laws have become much more restricted with stricter ad-blocks for digital advertising and a need for opt-in-consent of emails. As a result, organizations will lose the ability to reach out to the masses and generate revenue. Variable printing is an attractive option in these times. It is extremely powerful and has a higher success and open rate than traditional printed pieces, but let’s dig a little deeper.

Our clients have powerful CRM software that houses a lot of data about their customers. They might not understand how to target market different segments of that information to maximize their objectives. They may understand that they have data, but at the same time, they might be purchasing new leads lists because they want to grow by X per cent year over year. How about helping them better understand their own data? What if you could show them that 60 per cent, for example, made it to the checkout page and only 18 per cent made the purchase. What can we do with that information? Well, for starters, we take the time to help clients understand the metrics behind variable print—explain to them variable printed pieces have an open rate of 79 per cent, per my company’s internal data metrics, and if you sent an individually messaged note to more than 10,000 prospects, there’s an eight/10 chance for them to make a sale or garner more attention to their physical or online storefront. The key is to incorporate digital data the client has and automate it into a print process. If we can unify these two worlds, then we will have a two-pronged approach to generate revenue. This will open doors to new markets.

I bet you’re wondering what the ROI is on these types of personalized notes. However, what’s more important is to understand what that ROI means to a customer and where it can be seen along the sales process.

Is there a place in this world for print? Absolutely. Can the industry be perceived as cool and fun in the global marketplace? Yes, no doubt. There is a place for print to be more functional, a place where we can intertwine it with the latest technologies and provide our industry with a different set of product offerings. These solutions will continue to educate people on the relevance of print for generations to come and in a world where we stand as tall as digital.

The bottom-line is that print is here to stay, so let’s get creative albeit in a different way.

A.J. Rai is the vice-president of sales at Mitchell Press, Burnaby, B.C. He can be reached at ajrai@mitchellpress.com.

This column originally appeared in the January/February 2024 issue of PrintAction.

All respond to the consumer’s desire to feel special, valued and understood. This next level ability to communicate is delivered by hyper personalization. Rather than focusing on segments or groups, it concentrates on the individual. We also know it as one-to-one marketing, of course. It uses big data, artificial intelligence, and data analytics including customer scoring, in real time to deliver products, content, and experiences tailored to each customer’s unique needs, preferences, and context. Going beyond simple facts like a customer’s name, geographic location, demographic data, and search and purchase history, it accesses more advanced and complex information. This can include a customer’s purchasing behaviour, browsing activity, response rates to notifications and times when they are active. Artificial intelligence analyses the data and creates insights that help businesses deliver highly customized campaigns. It increases the likelihood that communications contain optimal content as well as enhances customer satisfaction.

There are at least five reasons for brands to make hyper personalization a part of their marketing strategy:

• Increased revenue –  An Accenture Interactive report found that 91 per cent of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that recognize, remember, and provide them with relevant offers and recommendations. Offering a hyper personalized experience demonstrates that customers matter. As a result, they are more likely to make purchases and become repeat customers. For example, in the insurance industry the first sale is often made at a loss to act as a “door opener” that leads to selling more insurance. This makes for a complex customer relationship that’s by definition “sticky”. This principle applies also to B2B marketing, especially with follow up sales.
• Better customer experience – An accurate understanding of a customer eliminates irrelevant interactions, thereby ensuring time and effort efficiency for communications. It increases engagement and helps deliver information that is interesting, valuable, and memorable. Research by Boston Consulting Group discovered that customers who experienced a high level of personalization provided customer loyalty scores 20 per cent higher than those who experienced a low level of personalization.
• Reduced customer churn – Winning customers is a lot more expensive than retaining them. Hyper personalization is a proven way to maintain brand interest. It is even expected – a McKinsey report found 71 per cent of consumers want companies to deliver personalized interactions. And 76 per cent get frustrated when this doesn’t happen.
• Boosts marketing ROI – Marketing is a huge business cost if not implemented effectively. Return on investment is shaped by three metrics: conversion rate, average order value, and customer acquisition costs. Hyper personalization delivering accurate and relevant targeting of products and messaging increases the first two and lowers the last one. In fact, Econsultancy reported 80 per cent of companies experienced an uplift following the implementation of personalization.
• Dynamic targeting – Hyper personalization is dynamic. Data is updated – unlike traditional personalization where, once the information is collected, it is not checked. It reflects changing customer needs, preferences, and behaviours such as life milestones and new interests.

Brands can enjoy all of these with creative digital print that delivers highly customized content and offers that drive action. Highly impactful, meaningful, and measurable communications can be created that ensure your clients’ customers feel understood and valued as well as keep them connected and encourage long-term loyalty.

Erwin Busselot is director Business Innovation & Solutions, Ricoh Graphic Communications, Ricoh Europe.

Networking with peers, industry leaders, potential clients, and suppliers remains a key benefit of associations. Knowledge sharing for best practices, resources, technology, and shared experience is now conducted at in-person events and through online resources, collaborative meeting spaces and social media.

Advocacy combined with marketing and promotion activities and events help to identify and connect with entities and influencers who can help achieve the goals of the association and address issues of the membership. Using a combined budget to create a common message that can be distributed to target groups to create awareness about benefits of the industry can be effective.

Professional development and certification programs have been a major activity for graphic arts organizations with programs for colour management and sustainability initiatives.

In many cases, an independent party is required to address the need to deal with different equipment suppliers (i.e. JDF, CiP4) and industry stakeholders like printers, suppliers, customers and in some cases, government agencies.

There are several associations dedicated to the graphic arts industry. Here is a partial list for the Canadian print industry:

1.  Canadian Printing Industries Association (CPIA) members come from the regional affiliates, plus one sector association that include:

• Atlantic Printing Industries Association (APIA);
• Alliance Québécoise des Imprimeurs et Fabricants d’Emballage (AQIFE);
• Ontario Printing and Imaging Association (OPIA);
• Manitoba Print Industry Association (MPIA);
• Saskatchewan Printing Industries Association (SPIA);
• Printing & Graphic Industries Association of Alberta (PGIA);
• Print Forward: Printing Imaging Association BC; and
• PESDA: Printing Equipment and Supply.

2. Digital Imaging Association of Canada (DIA).

3. PAC Global – Packaging Association.

4. Sign Association of Canada (SAC-ACE).

5.  College and University Print Management Association of Canada (CUPMAC).

6. Printing United Alliance, merger of PIA and sign garment, textile, electronics, packaging association with a North American focus.

The benefits of associations have been well demonstrated this year with webinars, in-person meetings on current topics of importance from CPIA, DIA, Print Forward, and other groups. Trade shows returned this year with Graphics Canada in May, and the Printing United Expo in Atlanta, Ga., in October 2023. Both the trade shows presented unique opportunities to participate in informational seminars, hosted by industry experts and often with panels of users who are your peers and are willing to share their experience and best practices with different aspects of business and technology.

Connecting in person with industry experts and vendors from all over the world who bring their most experienced team to these shows is invaluable. We must not forget that these in-person events are a great opportunity to reconnect with colleagues and peers and make new friends with others we meet and network with.

Several academic studies have demonstrated that having a social network, which can include work associates also, is key to happiness and longevity. So, if you want to be happy, join us at the next trade show, webinar, or in-person event.

Bob Dale is vice-president of Connecting for Results, the premier management consulting company focused on the graphics communications industry. He can be reached at b.dale@cfrincorporated.com.

In this hectic environment of endless choices, brands aiming to last and be profitable must find ways to stand out from the crowd. Revolutionized by the internet, marketing has become a crucial element of any business plan, with companies dedicating significant resources to it.

However, not all types of marketing can fulfil a company’s objectives. Today, customers are more market-aware, more demanding and less brand-loyal, meaning companies must be very smart and design an effective marketing strategy that will truly reflect their values and products, differentiate from competitors and ultimately, and most importantly, drive sales.

By ‘effective marketing,’ we don’t mean that we must favour digital (or modern) marketing – quick to implement – and forget about offline (or traditional) marketing. Instead, effective marketing means defining a powerful strategy with original, creative, and thoughtful ideas that will make an impact on our target audience, supported by consistent, coherent, and clever messages as well as followed by a well-defined and timely action plan.

Now we know what’s needed to achieve effective marketing, let’s talk about implementing it. Great marketing ideas often die because companies fail to implement them properly. On the other hand, good marketing ideas can become an incredible success when they are flawlessly implemented.

For reasons that vary depending on the company’s type or products, nowadays many brands solely focus on digital marketing. They invest from modest budgets to millions of dollars in Google and YouTube ads, Instagram videos, TikTok clips, web banners, SEO and SEM, hiring influencers to promote their products, etc. To survive, these brands need a constant market presence online, continuously delivering new content and being ever more creative and compelling. If they don’t, it’s just a matter of time before these brands fade and die.

At first, digital marketing may seem fun, modern, and less costly than printed marketing. However, there’s a high risk involved in advertising your brand exclusively through digital marketing: due to the huge volume of content available on the Internet and the usually short attention span of online customers, your brand will be competing with millions of other brands and can be quickly forgotten and replaced by one more active, more pervasive, or trendier than yours.

We always tell our customers that online marketing is like a fireplace: the moment you start burning fewer logs than your competitors, your fire will eventually go out. Branding your product online is a constant battle to burn more and more logs!

So, even though online marketing is a must and can bring significant benefits, we must not ignore the enormous influence of offline marketing in helping shape consumer behaviour and the amplified benefits of mixing both types of marketing.

By engaging multiple senses, sensory
marketing can help brands create a lasting impression on consumers. Photo © Drupa

Sensory marketing

While digital marketing reaches the sight and hearing of customers, brands must use a combination of printed, physical, and offline marketing to reach all five senses: smell, vision, taste, hearing and touch.

Due to the vast amounts of information we receive every day, our brains can only retain what makes a strong impression on us by creating a memorable experience. Of course, emotions play a very important role in making an experience memorable. The more senses are involved in that experience or event, the more impactful it will be.

Sensory marketing is a form of marketing that targets customers’ senses to create an emotional connection with a product or brand. It utilises a variety of sensory stimuli to influence consumer behaviour. By engaging multiple senses, sensory marketing can help brands create a lasting impression on consumers. Sensory marketing can also be used to influence consumer behaviour. For example, research has shown that certain scents can increase sales, while certain colours can influence consumer perceptions of a product’s quality.

Printed marketing materials help achieve goals

Overall, sensory marketing has become an increasingly important tool for brands looking to create memorable customer experiences and drive sales. On many occasions, sensory marketing can only be achieved with the help of printed materials, such as a magazine advert that includes a sample of a hand lotion or a perfume, or a high-level financial services company that sends its prospect customers a copy of their new corporate brochure printed on a special substrate that reflects wealth and prestige.

Printed materials such as brochures, catalogues and flyers are physical items that remain in potential customers’ hands, making them easier to revisit and recall, read at their leisure, and even share with others. For instance, when a company is exhibiting at a tradeshow, distributing printed product brochures or postcards (instead of a PDF or an email) inviting customers to join a company event can make the difference between a potential customer forgetting about the brand or remembering it long after the tradeshow has ended.

Printed marketing materials can be very cost-effective, as they can be produced digitally at an affordable cost and strategically placed in locations where the target audience is most likely to be. A typical example: a real estate company placing flyers about a new housing development in local cafes or grocery stores to reach their target audience.

Printed marketing can also help build brand recognition by using distinctive substrates, designs, fonts, and colour schemes that people associate with the company. This strategy can be highly effective in creating a loyal customer base more likely to remember the company, its products, and services in the future.

Finally, printed marketing can help a company establish credibility and trust in the eyes of potential customers. Companies that invest in quality printed marketing give the impression that they are serious about their business and are generally seen as more trustworthy than those relying solely on digital marketing. This, in turn, can lead to increased confidence from potential customers and greater brand recognition as well.

In conclusion, despite the rise of digital marketing, offline marketing remains an essential part of any effective marketing strategy as very often it involves ‘touching’ the customers’ five senses. Brands that decide to include printed material in their marketing mix to provide a tangible means of accessing information are a step ahead in establishing credibility and trust among their target audience.

Montserrat Petit is the founder and managing director of marketing agency MOND Marketing On Demand. This article was originally published in Drupa Essentials of Print Series.

He explains that, as a result, marketeers can lose sight of the fundamentals – human behaviour. He states: “Ultimately marketing, or sales, or advertising is all about behaviour change. We want people to buy our brands, buy more of our brands, switch to our brands and tell their friends about our brands. It is all about human behaviour.”

A lot of time, money and energy can be wasted doing what is thought to be new and cool if it misses understanding:

• why we, as consumers, make the choices we do;
• why we like certain brands and not others; and
• how communication works in the brain.

Brand marketeers are encouraged to optimize the path to purchase as that can help. Taking a behavioural lens to a customer journey and analyzing what the behaviour is now and what the desired behaviour is, should help with successful mapping. Different techniques should then be applied across the various stages of the journey. Classic A/B testing is one tried and tested option.

Key too, is consistency of messaging and consistency of look and feel across the different journey points. Often different people in separate departments are responsible for unrelated touchpoints or sectors of the customer journey. Unless they are all aligned, and what is trying to be achieved is properly understood, the journey can become disjointed.

Gaps can then open up between the strategy and execution. And the whole approach is compromised.

There are several ways digital print can help optimize the customer journey with consistent, informative, and impactful communications.

It can help create:

• timely, targeted, educational promotions and refined offers with cleaner, more accurate, and better segmented data;
• impactful personalization that makes the customer feel individually valued;
• a marketing asset management) system can also be adopted to help ensure brand guidelines are met and a consistent look and feel is applied across the different journey points;
• engaging messages and visually exciting communications that can enliven print on a wide range of media with spot colours, fluorescent effects using neon toners, white toner, and metallic effects;
• memorable interactions with tactile substrates that can be employed to stimulate the sense of touch for a greater feeling of connectivity;
• increased interactivity between on- and off-line worlds with printed QR codes and augmented reality (AR) for a more seamless experience.

The combination of the above can determine a connected journey that recognizes the individuality of the customer and makes them feel valued. It builds trust. It gets results.

Digital printing technology can thus support your marketing clients in their quest for building and sustaining optimized customer journeys.

Challenges

The printing industry faces several unique cybersecurity challenges. Firstly, printers, as networked devices, can often be targets of cyberattacks, as they may have access to sensitive and valuable information. Secondly, the complexity involved in securing various components of a printing business, such as email systems, company websites, social media accounts, backend systems (billing), online banking, mobile devices, and remote access, can pose a challenge for businesses that may not have dedicated IT security teams.

Opportunities

Despite the challenges, businesses in the printing industry have the opportunity to address their cybersecurity needs proactively. By leveraging advanced security solutions and adopting best practices, organizations can minimize the risk of cyberattacks and, consequently, protect their reputation and valuable information. Further, by demonstrating a high level of cybersecurity maturity, printing companies can attract new customers who value data privacy and security.

Phishing attacks

A common cybersecurity threat that many businesses face is phishing, which involves cybercriminals attempting to gain access to sensitive information by posing as a trustworthy entity. For example, an attacker may send an email to an employee of a printing company, pretending to be a client, with a suspicious attachment or a link to a website that installs malware on the user’s computer. If the recipient opens the attachment or clicks on the link, the attacker may gain unauthorized access to the company’s systems and compromise crucial information, potentially leading to financial or reputational loss.

To counter phishing attacks, printing companies can train their employees on how to recognize potential phishing emails, encourage the use of strong, unique passwords for each account, and use multi-factor authentication methods to protect critical systems and information.

Ransomware attack

Ransomware is a type of malware that encrypts a victim’s data and demands payment, usually in cryptocurrencies, to release the decryption key. In this example, a cybercriminal infiltrates the network of a printing and imaging services provider and deploys ransomware, effectively locking the company out of its critical files and systems. Until the ransom is paid, the company cannot access its data or fulfil customer orders, causing significant operational disruption and revenue loss.

To protect their businesses from ransomware attacks, printing companies should ensure all software on their systems is up-to-date and patched regularly, as outdated software can present vulnerabilities that cybercriminals exploit. Additionally, implementing robust data backup and recovery processes and educating employees on cybersecurity best practices can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to ransomware attacks.

Photo © Iryna Generated with AI / Adobe Stock

Cyber hygiene

To protect from ransomware and other cyberattacks, all employees and contractors should take ownership of their cyber hygiene and follow these best practices:

1. Always use strong authentication for credentials on all software and systems:

• Enable MFA (multi-factor authentication)
• Authenticator app is more secure than SMS
• Enable biometrics 
• No passwords to lose or share
• Make all passwords unique and complex
• 15+ characters long 
• When a password is compromised, only one account is affected
• Use a password manager 
• Use Passkeys
• Severely reduces social engineering effectiveness

2. Never join an unknown network, like a free wi-fi network. This leaves your device open to any other device on the network.

• Most public networks are big “flat” networks, which are a hacker’s dream
• Hotspotting to a cell phone is better 
• Bringing your own router/gateway is the best

3. Keep all software and applications up to date. Out-of-date software often contains vulnerabilities that hackers exploit to infiltrate networks and systems.

• Enable auto-update
• Restart your browser (most browsers auto-update, but they need to be restarted to take effect)

For IT professionals and more advanced users, the following should also be done:

4. Segment your network. Dividing a company’s network into smaller, isolated segments will minimize the risk of a cyberattack spreading to other systems because it restricts the attacker’s lateral movement. This can be achieved by the following methods:

• Separate router/gateway 
• VLAN

Photo © CyberLucent

5. Enable threat and phishing protection by using a DNS provider that has a better “phone book” that doesn’t include “phone numbers” (IPs) for bad actors. When users click on a “bad” link in an email, this will stop the attack in its tracks. Additionally, malware trying to “call home” to some rogue domain won’t be able to get there.

• Can be configured on your home router – best
• Can be configured on each end-point device or even in each browser
• Free DNS providers 
• OpenDNS 
• CIRA Canadian Shield 

6. Continuous traffic monitoring and inspection, while maintaining full employee privacy

• Do not decrypt traffic – packet inspection can be done without decrypting packets
• Implement advanced network monitoring and threat detection tools

Conclusion

The printing industry faces unique cybersecurity challenges, but also has the opportunity to address these issues proactively. With all users taking ownership of their own cyber hygiene and adopting best practices, such as strong authentication, regular software updates, and making sure not to join unknown networks, the risk of cyberattacks is reduced drastically. Additionally, with corporate IT professionals adopting network segmentation, threat and phishing protection, and continuous monitoring and response, any potential threat will be contained and easier to eliminate.  

Grant Sadler, P.Eng, has 17 years of telecom experience, having held various technical and management roles at TELUS in Toronto. He then founded and ran a home automation and security company for seven years before joining CyberLucent in 2021.

This article originally appeared in the September/October 2023 issue of PrintAction.

Types of training covered

COJG covers:

• college or university courses;
• school board courses;
• union-based training courses;
• vendor product courses;
• fees by training providers; and
• mandatory student fees, textbooks, software and other required materials for all approved courses and examination fees.

Funding amount

The funding depends on the number of employees.

Companies with less than 100 employees

If your company has less than 100 T4 employees, COJG will cover 80 per cent of the training costs to a maximum of $10,000 per employee. For example, if a company spent $11,900 on training an employee, they would receive the maximum training grant amount of $10,000. Therefore, the employer would only be incurring $1,900 in expenses.

Companies with more than 100 employees

If your company has more that 100 T4 employees, COJG covers 50 per cent of the training costs to a maximum of $10,000 per employee. For example, if a company spent $20,000 on training an employee, they would receive the maximum training grant amount of $10,000 per employee.

Payment

Proof of payment needs to be provided to the government to receive reimbursement for training costs. It takes at least six weeks to receive your training COJG funding.

Application timeline

A grant is a limited amount of funding that must be approved before any expenditures are made. If you apply for COJG when training is in process, or after you complete the training, your company will be ineligible. You need to apply for COJG and get it approved before the training starts.

Once the COGJ funds are given out for the year, even if your company qualifies for the funding, you will not be able to get funding. For example, your company applies for funding for HR courses at a local college, which will be taking place in four months. While your company meets all the COJG criteria, you will not receive any funding if all COJG funds were given out for the government’s current fiscal year. You will need to wait until the next year.

COJG opens at the start of the government fiscal year, which is April 1 ^st and ends March 31^st of the following year. It is recommended you apply for all required training as soon as possible to ensure funding.

Application procedure

The COJG application can be found on the Ministry of Colleges, Universities and Training website.

Once the COJG application form is completed, you submit it online, and someone from the government will be in touch with you. The government representative will review the application and ask for any additional details they need. The approval decision on your COJG application will be made within a few weeks of your meeting with the government representative. Employers may apply for funding on an annual basis.  

Bonny Koabel, CPA, CGA, is president of AKR Consulting Canada, which specializes in government grants.

That’s the value of industry associations, peer groups and mentors. Mentoring arrangements can be formal or informal. Informal can include working with someone who has knowledge, skill, and experience that you recognize and value. The person may agree to establishing an organized arrangement, which could be meeting for coffee periodically, and discussing business issues and challenges. It’s important that the purpose of the relationship and objectives are discussed, otherwise it would appear that the mentee is just using the mentor for information and advice.

When I was with a major financial institution, there was a formal mentoring program. People would volunteer to be mentors, indicate their interests and skills, and provide some background information. Mentees would also do the same and would be matched with a prospective mentor. In addition to business discussions, other issues like challenges related to being a woman, or ethnic minority in the workplace, may be discussed. If this is a requirement, then matching someone who has faced similar challenges would be preferred.

Many people do not realize, but mentoring arrangements are useful at all stages of our careers. The needs and focus may change, but the process is beneficial for many. Also, being a mentor to someone does not mean that you cannot also have a mentor of your own.

Print Wisdom

Students at the Toronto Metropolitan University can participate in the Print Wisdom mentorship program. This is a formal program available for second- to fourth-year students. Students register and provide a profile with their areas of interest, goals and indicate if a specific demographic profile for a mentor is preferred.

Each student is matched with a mentor and specific goals, objectives, and meeting frequency is established. 

Natalia Lumby, chair, Graphic Communications Management program said, “Mentors provide a new perspective into future careers and are another friendly face in this important transition time for students.”

Helping someone who is investing four years of their life to prepare for the graphic communications industry bridge the gap from an academic environment to how the technology and processes are managed in the business environment is an important task.

There can be discussion on companies in the different segments of the industry, application and challenges with technology, materials, people, approaches, and outcomes. Getting ready for a career will also involve making decisions on industry segments, roles, and responsibilities and how to navigate a career path.

Throughout this process it is important to respect confidentiality. Mentors are not to share confidential company information, and mentees must be aware they may be gaining insights that should not be shared.

After talking to many mentors for the GCM program, Lumby also commented, “Mentors are also often surprised by how energizing and fulfilling giving back can be.”

If you are interested in becoming a mentor for a student or another industry person, please contact me. Remember, many of the students are young women and would really enjoy connecting with women who have been in the industry for a few years and would be willing to spend some time and share insights.

To summarize, as Michelle Obama said, “Mentorship is not just about sharing advice, but also about sharing experiences and lessons learned.”   

Bob Dale is co-founder of Connecting for Results. He can be reached at b.dale@cfrincorporated.com.

The study explores what increasingly cautious consumers expect, how and why they decide to purchase and, more importantly, how businesses can direct their efforts to adapt. Back in 2016, when BDC conducted a similar study, millennials were driving the hyper-connected consumer revolution, sharing platforms were just emerging and there was a need to better target consumers with personalized messages and experiences.

“These trends have become part of our daily lives, and we realize that they are associated with the larger trend of consuming and owning less, whether it’s a conscious choice or to save costs,” says Pierre Cléroux, vice-president, research and chief economist at BDC. “Today’s prudent consumers have different expectations; it’s important to keep these in mind when adjusting to shifts in their behaviour.”

For example, bringing sustainability to all aspects of the business, as well as promoting sustainability efforts, can go a long way.

The study sheds light on three emerging trends with important implications for all businesses, regardless of size or industry.

The client always comes first
Just over a third of Canadian businesses (34 per cent) have redesigned the customer experience, even though most consumers (over 90 per cent) strongly agree that a simple and satisfying experience is fundamental to the consumer-business relationship.

Proactively managing online reviews can help entrepreneurs who have a strong presence with younger generations keep track of what’s being said online and correct points of misinformation. Technology can help for many aspects of the clients’ journey, including marketing automation, e-commerce websites and identifying the right channels to effectively deliver customer service.

Consuming less is more
Only one in 10 businesses offer a way for consumers to purchase used, refurbished, or returned merchandise. Entrepreneurs are not honing in on a trend that appeals highly to millennials, Gen X and baby boomers alike. In fact, almost two-thirds (61 per cent) of consumers prefer to live simply.

Entrepreneurs can help their clients consume less by rethinking their product design to improve their environmental footprint. Another prime example of appealing to different generations is to segment messages to personalize communications based on past purchasing behaviour.

It’s not me, it’s you
Consumers want businesses to inspire trust, and just over half of them (56 per cent) have stopped buying from companies whose business practices they don’t agree with. To be a better corporate citizen, entrepreneurs can consider third-party certification to acknowledge they live up to the highest standards. Knowing what makes their customers tick shows that they care and helps them stand out from competitors.

To increase the reach and relevance of its support to entrepreneurs, BDC also analyzed each trend’s importance according to Gen Z, millennial, Gen X, and baby boomer generations. Age matters: few businesses (29 per cent) are taking a generational approach to the products and services they offer, although behaviour, values, and beliefs vary by age. For instance, environmental considerations are more important for millennial consumers. Taking a generational approach to understanding purchasing behaviour can be valuable to businesses looking to better target their customers, as not all trends are expressed the same way.

The study presents the trends and insights drawn from an anonymous survey of 1,983 Canadian adult members of the Angus Reid Group’s consumer panel and 759 Canadian SME business leaders, members of the BDC ViewPoints panel. The results of these surveys have been weighted to represent both Canadian consumer and business populations.

As a business model, employee-ownership “fosters sustainable ownership, improves financial performance, and provides a host of benefits to both the company and the country,” said Chad, who is a member of the Canadian Employee Ownership Coalition’s (CEOC’s) steering committee. He believes employee-ownership offers a promising alternative to the negative impacts of capitalism that are becoming more visible these days.

Need for change

According to a 2020 survey by Edelman Data & Intelligence, 57 per cent of people believe capitalism, as it exists today, does more harm than good. There is a stark wealth gap between owners and workers. According to Stats Canada, most wealth is held by relatively few households in Canada. The wealthiest households (top 20 per cent) accounted for more than two-thirds (67.9 per cent) of net worth at the end of 2022, while the least wealthy households (bottom 40 per cent) accounted for 2.6 per cent.

We are also seeing market consolidations in monolithic companies like Amazon as well as the rise of faceless private equity ownerships. Employee-ownership presents an opportunity to address these concerns and create a more equitable economy.

Employee-ownership models attract talented individuals who want to be part of a great story and contribute to the company’s success.

Benefits to the company

Employee-ownership offers several advantages to the company. Firstly, it establishes a sustainable ownership structure, ensuring continuity and long-term commitment from employees. Secondly, employee-owned businesses tend to exhibit better financial performance, driven by a shared sense of responsibility and dedication among workers. Moreover, being part of a company with an empowering ownership model attracts talented individuals who want to be part of a great story and contribute to its success.

Chad Friesen.

Benefits to the country

Beyond the benefits to individual companies, employee-ownership is beneficial to Canada. It contributes to economic resilience by diversifying ownership and reducing dependency on select companies. By encouraging broader distribution of wealth, employee-ownership helps address income inequality, thereby fostering a more inclusive society.

According to a survey by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), 76 per cent of owners plan to exit within the next 10 years. But, 43 per cent of these businesses lack a succession plan, leaving them vulnerable to being sold to consolidators or private equity firms, most likely from outside the community, province, or Canada. With approx. 140,000 businesses in Canada employing between 20 and 500 workers, the implications are significant for roughly 5 million individuals.

As we all know, in the printing industry, many company owners are looking to retire. Employee-ownership would be an attractive option for these owners. A CFIB survey indicates 53 per cent of existing owners would be more inclined to sell to their employees if viable options were available. A majority of the surveyed business owners (61 per cent) said they’ll prioritize “protecting employees” during a business sale over attaining the highest possible price.

Employee-ownership ensures a smooth transition, and the local economy can continue to sustain itself. Canada will also benefit from the reduction in foreign ownership.

Role of EOTs

Employee ownership trusts (EOTs) provide a framework for implementing employee-ownership. EOTs hold shares on behalf of employees, allowing them to benefit from shared ownership without requiring upfront payment. These trusts often borrow money to acquire shares, and employees receive the benefits of ownership based on formulas tied to their tenure and pay. EOTs offer a simple, cost-effective solution to transition ownership and empower employees, said Chad.

Canada’s opportunity

In the U.S. and U.K., employee-ownerships have been successful for years. In the U.S., the employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) was established in 1974. Equity growth is the focus in the U.S. where 6,000 companies with 2 million employee owners have ESOPs. Most of these companies employ around 20 to 250 employees, and are in varied industries, such as manufacturing; professional, scientific, and technical; and financial services. Publix Super Markets is the largest privately held ESOP in the U.S. with more than 200,000 employee-owners.

In the U.K., EOT was established in 2014. Profit-sharing is the focus in the U.K. where 800 companies with 100,000 employee-owners have EOTs. Most of these companies employ around 20 to 250 employees, and are in varied industries, such as manufacturing; professional, scientific, and technical; and IT services.

In Canada, we have around 30 EOTs with profit-sharing as the focus. In 2010, Friesens adopted the EOT business model. Today, it has more 650 employee-owners. In 2022, $10,000 was the average EOT payment at Friesens. 

Brett House, former deputy economist of Scotiabank, predicts Canada could have up to 750 EOTs by 2030 if appropriate policies and incentives are adopted. Per an analysis shared by Chad, the level of adoption would result in 50,000 to 114,000 new employee-owners; $4.3 to $9.6 billion in wealth generated for employee-owners; and over 100 new employee-owned companies formed per year, creating over 10,000 new employee-owners annually.

Stumbling blocks

The federal government committed to creating an EOT framework by January 2024 in the 2023 budget. A draft legislation was also published for feedback. While the legislation proposes providing benefits to all employees at no additional cost, CEOC argues it lacks key measures that are needed to make Canada’s employee-ownership as successful as in the U.S. and U.K.

CEOC is asking the federal government to increase eligibility for EOTs; introduce clear and simple rules for an EOT; adopt a governance structure that promotes smooth and gradual transition of privately owned businesses to an EOT; and incentivize employee-ownerships for about-to-be sold businesses by providing capital gains tax exemption to owners who sell a majority of their company to an EOT.

Employee-ownership has the potential to shape a more equitable and resilient economy. If you’re struggling to draft a succession plan for your company, consider an employee ownership trust.

Speakers from RBC Royal Bank, Staples Canada, Canada Post and Flash Reproductions shared valuable insights that would help print leaders be better prepared to understand client needs in greater detail and develop strategies for long-term success.

Retail merchandising
Grace Chan, vice-president from RBC, shared insights from a financial services merchandizing perspective. One purpose of printed material and display graphics is to start conversations between customers and their staff. This is intended to lead to a discussion on solutions that can be provided. Exterior graphics can be used to attract and engage consumers from the community. This can include socially conscious and/or seasonal themes, or product and solution themes that are co-ordinated with messaging from other media.

Once inside the branch, there are other types of graphic communication and printed materials with different messaging intended to create client interest in products or services. All this printed material are only components of a sophisticated messaging system designed to inform and assist clients to engage and benefit from financial services and available solutions.

Direct mail
Sylwia Plawinski from Canada Post shared many insights on how marketers can use data and visualization to deliver results. After all, if clients conduct direct mail programs, and do not achieve results, then they will not continue. We must always be mindful that our clients are not buying printed products from us but are investing in the benefits of the printed products.

Plawinski shared six key purposes of direct mail initiatives to emphasise the importance of using data to identify and target your priority customers. Canada Post tools providing measurements and data analytics that can be used to prove and improve results were also shared during the discussion.

Digital printed products
Brendan Ireland from Staples Canada provided positive news that the trend for digital product demand has grown consistently over the past five years, while some areas of industry are in decline. Another interesting observation is the increase in cloud printing due to changes in the workplace and reduced in-office time for employees.

Customer expectations have changed. Whether they are end-consumers or businesses, they expect on-demand delivery. The impact of reduced volumes has resulted in more frequent printing of smaller quantities. However, pricing pressure remains from all customer segments. There was a brief period when demand exceeded supply due to supply chain issues. Pricing pressure was not severe then but has now returned.

Packaging unique products
Rich Pauptit, president of Flash Reproductions, showed samples of some of their products. Flash works closely with the design community to bring unique ideas to life. Their clients require products that stand out and leave an impression on the end-user. It is often intended to provide a positive opinion of the customer and/or item enclosed. Their goal is to be remembered and stand out from competition—‘impress, engage and be remembered.’

This event was a great opportunity to gain an understanding and a reminder to continue to focus on customer needs and ask clients key questions that go beyond, ‘what do you need?’ Explore why do they need it and how are they going to use the printed piece. Successful salespeople understand and advise clients on what will work best for their needs.

Bob Dale is co-founder of Connecting for Results, the premier management consulting company focused on the graphics communications industry. He can be reached at b.dale@cfrincorporated.com.

In August 2022, Rocket piloted a two-month four-day work week program, which has now become permanent.

“We chose August because it is a month heavy in vacations and September tends to be a heavy production month. We felt these two months together would be a good test to see if we could actually do it and to determine where any deficiencies might be that we hadn’t thought of,” explained Scott Williams, CEO, Rocket.

It is well known that the print industry is struggling to attract skilled labour. Williams realized he had to look at new and innovative ways of retaining and acquiring team members. Inspired by the four-day work week trials in the U.K., he decided to test it out at Rocket.

Scott Williams, CEO, Rocket.

Productivity increases

The pilot program was a success. Williams said it was well-received. “We actually gained production capacity because some team members wanted to come in earlier while others preferred to come in later. This resulted in an expanded production capacity,” he added.

Williams’ observation mirrors recently released results of the world’s largest four-day work week trial. The pilot program—conducted by the non-profit 4 Day Week Global, the U.K.’s 4 Day Week Campaign and think-tank Autonomy—guided more than 60 companies in the U.K. and almost 3,000 workers through a six-month trial of a four-day week, with no loss of pay for workers. Post-trial, 91 per cent of participating companies said they’re continuing or planning to continue a four-day week. Companies rated their overall experience of the trials an average of 8.5 out of 10. According to the survey results, revenue rose by 35 per cent over the trial periods and hiring increased while absenteeism decreased. Companies also reported that the health and well-being of employees improved, with “significant increases observed in physical and mental health, time spent exercising, and overall life and job satisfaction. Rates of stress, burnout and fatigue all fell, while problems with sleep declined.”

Given the findings, it’s not surprising the Rocket team embraced the four-day work week from day one. “They knew that it would mean longer hours, but the extra day has been more than worth it. We haven’t had a single complaint,” said Williams.

Matt Keilty, shipping co-ordinator, Rocket, loves the four-day work week, as he gets to spend quality time with family.

A four-day work week has meant that Rocket’s employees are able to reduce childcare costs; spend an extra day with family; not do chores on the weekend and do the same quicker on a weekday; save 20 per cent on gas and travel; and having more time with friends and to do things they normally hadn’t had time for.

“The four-day work week has been amazing! Work-life balance has been perfect. The productive work week flies by and being able to wake up Friday morning and have coffee with my significant other is really nice. Every weekend being a long weekend has given us more time to plan/enjoy our adventures with no rush. All of North America needs to adopt this work schedule,” said Matt Keilty, shipping co-ordinator, Rocket.

His colleague Pam Fraser, accounting administration at Rocket, is all praises for the new schedule. “What can I say about the four-day work week—I love it! Having the extra day off each week gives more family time as you can unwind, get household chores done and still have the weekend,” she added.

Brian Holland, bindery operator, has been able to save on commute time due to a four-day work week. He said, “I live about an hour away and one less day to travel to and from work is great. I’d much rather stay at work a couple of extra hours over four days and have every Friday off. Fridays now are for running errands, booking appointments, and getting work done around the house and leaving Saturday and Sunday for fun activities.”

Contrary to popular belief, a four-day work week increased Rocket’s production capacity.

Industry response

While the Rocket team thoroughly enjoyed the change, there were a few minor challenges such as deliveries and receiving, but Williams explained, “Those things worked themselves out fairly quick. The response from clients and partners has overwhelmingly been one of envy more than anything else.”

Client reaction was one of the major concerns that Williams had about the four-day work week switch. However, those concerns were “quickly alleviated after having conversations with several long-standing clients and being able to assure them that their delivery times would not be affected,” he explained.

Rocket’s innovative plan has garnered some criticism too. “Being one of the first private businesses to adopt a four-day work week has resulted in a few negative comments like ‘it must be nice’, ‘wish we were making your kind of money’, and ‘glad business is so good for you’. None of these are true or the reason for our move to a four-day work week. We did it to look after our team members,” shared Williams, who would highly recommend the four-day work week to all privately owned businesses.

“With the pandemic, lack of available labour, and the stresses on families that seem to be continually building, we need to look after our employees. Our team members are our most important resource, and we need to make sure they have a legitimate opportunity for work-life balance. A four-day work week helps achieve this goal. There will also need to be flexibility on the part of the employer. Some team members may need to be accommodated due to family responsibilities etc. We do have some employees that work a hybrid five-day week, and you need to be open to some of these concepts. The idea of a nine to five, five days of work per week concept is dying, if it isn’t already dead. Accommodation is key,” he explained.

Participants were evenly distributed across small, medium, and large size printers. 

The results were surprising. They were shared at the recently concluded Graphics Canada Expo, held May 11 to 13 in Mississauga, Ont. Below are the highlights.

How was 2022 for the industry?

For the last two quarters of 2022, most companies had positive improvements in most categories, including sales revenue, volume, operations, and staffing, compared to the same period a year earlier. 

Note that 76 per cent of respondents increased product prices, over and above material price increases, in 2022. 

This is important, for several reasons. Firstly, all companies faced cost increases apart from material price hikes. It is critical those costs are recovered or offset with expense reductions in other areas. 

For some, the limited availability of paper and substrates made price negotiations easier with customers who were also facing challenges.

While it is no surprise that the availability of paper and other substrates improved, the biggest increase was the number of customers served!

Looking forward

Getting into the details, most respondents expect sales and production volumes to increase. Interesting to notice that production hours worked were not expected to increase to the same degree. Productivity is improving, likely leading to improved profitability. Almost 50 per cent believe they will be able to increase prices, which will increase margins.

Other categories of business conditions do reveal where the respondents expect challenges in the next six months. While the positive trend is moderated for these business conditions, the number of customers served is projected to increase for the next six months. The ability to hire staff and a slight deterioration of general business conditions are expected to create challenges.

Be positive

The leading question asked participants about overall company performance, and 78 per cent predicted that it’s getting better. Twenty per cent felt it is ‘not changing.’ The remaining two per cent believe company performance is decreasing. We can sum this up as, “Don’t worry, be happy!” While that may be an oversimplification of sentiment, the reality is that the printing business is challenging, and not everyone will fare as well as indicated in this survey. It takes good information to make smart, informed decisions, and hard work to stay on top. This is often best accomplished with teamwork. That can be from your internal team, personal contacts and family, industry peers and professional advisors. 

We wish you continued success and keep up the positive outlook. 

Bob Dale is the co-founder of Connecting for Results, a recruitment and management consulting company focused on the graphics communications industry. He can be reached at b.dale@cfrincorporated.com.

The company’s Prism sustainability framework includes a range of targets such as circular economy product development, reducing operational impacts, and building a diverse workforce. Plans include Flint Group’s recent commitment to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), with the company reducing carbon emissions in line with the 1.5 C scenario set out in the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Matthew Rowland-Jones, sustainability officer at Flint Group, said, “As the focus on climate change grows, brands seek packaging and label formats which are more sustainable to support their objectives. In today’s highly competitive market, printers need confidence that their vendors can help them lead in sustainable packaging via responsibly sourced, sustainable materials. Flint Group’s new Prism framework does just that. With a new set of targets and KPIs, we’re outlining how we will pave the way for even more sustainable products.”

In the same way a glass prism separates white light into different colours, the company’s Prism framework breaks the complexity of sustainability down into three essential parts: products, people, and the planet. It is designed to embed sustainability into the business, focusing on the most critical issues affecting the organization, its customers, and stakeholders, and specifically by designing products for the circular economy, helping customers be more efficient, and lowering the carbon footprint of its core products.

Established in November 2019, Connecting for Results (CFR) is a strategic consulting organization specializing in the printing industry. It’s a fully remote, lean business with offices in Victoria, Toronto, and St. John’s in Canada, and Seattle and New York in the U.S. CFR’s 12 consultants have decades of experience in all aspects of graphic communications. Connecting for Results aims to attract people to the industry, create awareness of the benefits of print, and support diversity across the industry. To do so, they work with the Toronto Metropolitan University’s (TMU) Graphic Communications Management program, especially mentoring the students, the Eva’s Print Shop, a non-profit training at-risk young adults for industry jobs, and the Canadian Print Scholarships.

This fall, CFR will celebrate its fourth anniversary. I asked its CEO Gordon Griffiths and COO Bob Dale to share tips on how to stay resilient.

Gordon Griffiths giving his acceptance speech for winning a 2021 Canadian Printing Award in the Lifetime
Achievement category.

How did you manage to not only run a business through the pandemic, but also expand it in such a short timeframe? 

GG: Having the best people and a variety of solid offerings are the key reasons for growth. With all the recent changes in the industry, I’ve been looking for the people with the best solutions to join our team. I cannot tell you how often clients have checked out our website and said, “Wow, you have Nicky Milner (and others) on your team?” The biggest impact on our growth was expanding to the United States, but we did that after building a solid base first.

Were you concerned about launching a business during the pandemic?

GG: We launched five months before the pandemic was official and it was only going to be Bob and myself. We have different skill sets and really complement each other. I can quickly see where we can help, and Bob, being a trained consultant, examines the facts before planning and executing the fix. During the beginning of the pandemic, Heather Black was the first person to join us. She’s responsible for recruitment services. We’re now a 12-member team.

Bob Dale accepts a 2021 Canadian Printing Award in the Community Leader of the Year category.

What steps did you take to insulate CFR from the pandemic?

BD: We controlled investment. We delayed leasing office space, and then shifted from a full-time office to fractional space and facilities. Since M+A activity reduced internationally, we changed our marketing messages and sales and business activity to focus on our other service offerings like strategic consulting and recruitment. During the pandemic some markets, such as packaged goods production, were booming so we focused on them. 

What were some of the challenges and how did you overcome them?

BD: When business travel was cancelled, we moved to virtual meetings and used digital tools like DocuSign. We established a peer group of senior executives from key print companies across Canada to identify common issues. CFR began to share best practices from an impartial perspective to help other companies in the industry.

How did you manage to keep the CFR team motivated throughout the pandemic?

GG: We are a very seasoned group, so motivating people was not the issue. The challenge was more in finding opportunities. During the pandemic, companies were holding on and consulting expenses were not top-of-mind, although a need. We don’t know to what degree COVID slowed our growth and never will. Whenever called on, our team gave their best and they put in the same effort as if they owned the company.

What factors contributed to CFR successfully navigating a pandemic?

BD: Since I had experience with remote work, I was able to put in place tools for team collaboration, planning and activity tracking, and communications. We took a team approach to our projects. Everyone was focused on communications for customer benefit and mutual success.

What advice did you give yourself about starting a new company when businesses were struggling to stay afloat? 

GG: Consulting is far from an instant return on effort, but I can tell you, any start-up takes time and energy. You must have the ability to get up for the next opportunity after you have been knocked down. Great things take time. Also, tomorrow depends on how well you are doing today. We were smart and lucky to stay lean. We marketed ourselves at the speed of cash, and we are still marketing. What has paid off is deciding from the beginning that we would always provide more than we promised, and then some.

What were some of the lessons learned about operating a business during a pandemic?

GG: Despite expertise, consulting is not for everyone. However, we’ve ended up with an excellent team. COVID was very challenging, but we learned that you could cover a lot of ground with products like Zoom. Bob and I were going to make a second trip to Montreal to meet a client, but we couldn’t due to company protocols. Thanks to virtual meetings, we covered a week of activity in a day (less travel, hotels, etc.), and it’s still helping us to go strong today.

What are your plans for CFR? 

GG: We have a good platform. Now we need to grow sales and improve each offering. I like to think we are like a high-end restaurant that is perfecting their specialty. Our tagline is “Knowledge + Experience = Results”, so we better be up to date. One of our offerings is to help companies with their succession plans, and believe me, we are thinking about ours after only three years.  

An edited version of this article originally appeared in the March/April 2023 issue of PrintAction.

1. Define your company’s brand strategy

• What is your company’s value proposition?
• Why work here? Is it ‘fun’?
• What is your onboarding process, from interview to first day on the job?
• What is your plan to make the company more diverse and inclusive?
• Make your opportunity exciting because if you’re not thrilled about your company, how will someone else be.
• Differentiators may be more than price, quality, and service. One reason an employee was attracted to our firm was due to our ‘corporate social responsibility’ programs.

2. What are your expectations and how will there be support for them to succeed?

• While you may be looking for a ‘self-starter,’ new employees require information, tools, and guidance to succeed.
• Why do staff want to help customers and contribute to your company’s success?
• Younger employees may need more social support because they missed the level of social interaction they had at school. Offering department managers more discretion and a small budget for monthly or quarterly pizza lunches boosts morale.

3. Is there a career path for the right candidate?

What learning and development opportunities does your company offer? Young people would appreciate the opportunity to diversify rather than be stuck at one role.

4. Pay equity transparency

• Young workers will share pay information, so develop a formal salary structure.
• Historically, the perception is that labour is the most controllable variable in the accountant’s arsenal. However, human resource does not provide that form of guarantee or direct RO, and a strong business case can be made for fair wages.
• Consider a leveraged compensation model that is similar to sales plans with goals, shared risk, incentives and rewards for high performers. Take into account individual and team contributions when planning compensation programs.

5. Early discussions with prospective employees must include life/work balance

• This can be demonstrated before initial engagement and be as simple as an email tagline. We know printers whose email messages convey information about respecting employees’ personal time or highlighting they work four-day work weeks and providing details to reach them after work hours.
• As with successful sports teams, many championships are won due to motivation that focus on teamwork and not individual skills.

 While these recommendations may appear to shift the company’s priorities on the newest employees, these are all best practices that are important to achieve long-term success. These suggestions may come with a price tag that must be reflected in your cost of doing business.    

Bob Dale, Heather Black, and Phil Klugman are with strategic consulting firm Connecting for Results. They can be reached at info@connectingforresults.com.

An edited version of this article originally appeared in the March/April 2023 issue of PrintAction.

Currently available for the Speedmaster XL 105/106 and 145/162, Heidelberg’s Sheetfed Mechanical Maintenance and Sheetfed Electrical Maintenance courses are multi-phase training programs offered in the company’s Print Media Performance and Training Center (PMPTC) located at its North American headquarters in Kennesaw, GA. Depending on the course, participants will develop a baseline understanding of the multiple mechanical and mechatronic systems or electrical control systems throughout the press. Each course lasts five days and will have a maximum of six participants to ensure proper comprehensive training. Level 1 trainings are designed to introduce the basics of mechanical and electrical training while Level 2 is designed to turn participants into “first responders” to address press maintenance issues.

“We’ve been asked by our customers about how they can better develop their workforce,” said Mike Koeberlein, director, global solution centre for Heidelberg USA. “This type of training – specific to press repair and maintenance – has been a real need across the industry for years.”

Participants of the training will also be better equipped to speak with Heidelberg’s technical help desk about issues as they arise. While other operator training courses offered at Heidelberg’s PMPTC are free, there is a charge for the Sheetfed Mechanical & Electrical Training programs.

“We looked at the cost of a service call and the customers’ downtime,” said Koeberlein. “With suction head repair, for example, the best-case scenario is a part arrives to the customer, and the service tech arrives for installation next day. They’ve already lost 12-14 hours. If we can talk someone through the repair that’s been through training, they’ve saved a half day of production, which is a huge return on investment.”

Looking ahead, Heidelberg intends to offer Level 3 classes as participants complete the initial two levels. The company is also looking to add maintenance training courses for its line of press peripherals, UV presses, and potentially, smaller press sizes based on demand and availability. Private classes for larger groups of participants from the same company are available upon request. “This isn’t a ‘one and done’ type of thing,” said Koeberlein. “We want a developmental approach for our training so people can continue to grow in their skills.”

To register for available training dates, please contact your local Heidelberg sales representative or visit www.heidelberg.com/HUS_Maintenance_Training.

One of the companies that has made the move successfully is Hemlock Printers. In October 2022, Hemlock purchased Los Angeles-based Paper Chase Press, and according to Richard Kouwenhoven, Hemlock president & CEO, the acquisition was a good fit because both companies have similar clients and “similar market positioning around quality and technology.”

Based in Burnaby, B.C., Hemlock is focused on new business possibilities with clients on the West Coast. The company has 175 employees in Canada, as well as sales teams working out of Seattle and San Francisco. “We [also] have a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary based in Washington State, and we’ve been selling into the U.S. for over 25 years now,” adds Kouwenhoven.

Richard Kouwenhoven

The e-commerce benefit

Paper Chase was particularly attractive as an acquisition because of their focus on e-commerce and their digital knowhow. “What was really interesting about them is that they have grown through e-commerce,” Kouwenhoven explains, “and we have no real direct e-commerce business. So we can learn from what Paper Chase has done both in the e-commerce and the digital marketing side, which we see as areas we’d like to grow in the years ahead.”

Kouwenhoven says he sees both short- and long-term benefits to his acquisition. “We now have a new sales channel that is coming from the United States,” he explains. “The Paper Chase team and the U.S. Hemlock team can work to develop business together. So that’s the immediate benefit. The longer-term benefit is the growth and expertise in e-commerce, which also drives all kinds of opportunities from a workflow automation standpoint, and the introduction of those kinds of services into the Canadian market.”

Over the next 12 months, Kouwenhoven plans to align and integrate the processes employed by both companies, and thereafter to focus on growing their combined product offering. He feels that this acquisition gets Hemlock into new markets with new opportunities. “The Southern California area is a giant commercial market,” he adds.

The Paper Chase acquisition will benefit Hemlock and boost business on both sides of the border, Kouwenhoven explains. “It’s great news for our U.S. sales team because they have a new ally and a new tool at their disposal. On the Canadian side, it’s the expertise in e-commerce and social media and digital marketing that we feel will be important for Hemlock’s long-term success.”

Taking advantage of missed opportunities

Like Hemlock, Mitchell Press, Burnaby, B.C., is also eager to boost business along the West Coast. With customers both in Canada and the U.S., Mitchell Press’ executive vice-president Scott Gray says his company is focused on growing their client base south of the border.

Scott Gray

“We’ve been working in the States for years,” Gray says, “mostly through historic relationship with a ‘drive down, fly down’ approach to doing business. However, during the pandemic we saw a lot of activity from Eastern U.S. brokers, and we realized that there was a lot of opportunity being missed, especially in the States.”

One of the key benefits of working with American customers, according to Gray, is the big orders they tend to place. “Run sizes in the States are two to three times what they are in Canada,” he explains, “so it doesn’t take as much to make us busier.”

Gaps in the marketplace

Although Mitchell Press was able to take on several larger projects with the help of brokers, Gray says he saw opportunities that were especially well-suited for a West Coast company like Mitchell. “We noticed gaps in the marketplace, especially in the publication and catalogue production areas because a lot of the competition that we have is either in Eastern Canada, or the Midwestern United States. There’s not a lot on the West Coast. They keep disappearing because they’re more focused on super-high-volume [projects] at a cheap cost.”

Mitchell Press, on the other hand, is focused on quality, and on providing top-notch service to their West Coast customers, Gray explains. “When you’re talking about publications, content is king, and it has to be a quality publication,” he adds. “We got back about $4 million worth of business in the last two years from clients that had been printing back east, and just felt they weren’t the number one [client] anymore.”

This West Coast-focused approach to business is why Mitchell Press opened sales offices in Portland, Ore., in October 2022. With one full-time employee in Oregon, along with two manufacturer’s reps, Mitchell is eager to drum up new business, “up and down the West Coast, predominantly from Northern California to Washington State,” Gray adds.

The West Coast is important to companies based in Western Canada simply because of geography, Gray explains. “The Rockies separate the West Coast from the rest of the world,” he adds. “What we’ve noticed, especially with all these extreme weather events, is that the West Coast can get cut off for days at a time. So people are trying to bring their product a little closer to home if they can, and running up and down the coast, as opposed to going inland and outland, has its advantages.”

Sustainable growth

The goal, Gray says, is sustainable growth. “A lot of competition up and down the West Coast has either gone out of business, or they’ve mothballed equipment, or they just didn’t see it was going to fit their billion-dollar dreams,” he adds. “We’re not a massive printer, but we’re big enough that we can play with the big kids.”

Fully aware the economy is still unpredictable as we enter 2023, Gray says he isn’t overly ambitious as he looks at his company’s potential in the U.S. “We want sustainable growth,” he explains. “With 105 employees, we have 105 families to feed. We want to expand, but we don’t want to be uncomfortable with how busy we are. We want to be able to make sure we’re profitable, and that we’re delivering on what we say. We always want to make sure we deliver on quality.” 

An edited version of this article originally appeared in the January/February 2023 issue of PrintAction.

Founded more than 40 years ago, the Ellis Group has three manufacturing facilities in Ontario. The acquisition was a surprise as the Ellis Group was and is a thriving business with an active clientele. I interviewed Marc Shore, CEO of Max Solutions, to unpack this major industry development.

As it turns out, in January 2022, the Ellis family initiated a process to explore the opportunity to find an acquirer that made sense for their business and to take the Ellis Group to the next level. A strong cultural fit was very important to Bill Ellis, CEO of the Ellis Group, and his family. Max Solutions checked all the boxes.

“We knew how important it was to find a partner that shared our commitment to excellence, service, and to our valued employees. I am extremely proud of the company we built and have great appreciation for everyone who has contributed to its success. Max Solutions has the expertise and experience to take the Ellis Group to the next level,” said Bill Ellis in a media release sent to announce the acquisition.

“The Ellis family has built a strong legacy of innovation, state-of-the art technology, and exceptional customer support over the past 40 years. Together, we will leverage our complementary capabilities, product portfolio and end-market expertise to provide unmatched service, speed-to-market, zero-defect quality, and the highest levels of contingency planning to our customers,” explained Shore. “Historically, we’ve sought to serve our customers in a scaled, and global, way. Ellis allows us to better serve our customers in North America and expand into additional regions.”

Dennis Kaltman.

Marc Shore.

Industry veterans

Shore started his print and packaging career at Shorewood Packaging where he worked for over 28 years. He was named president of Shorewood in 1991 and CEO in 1995. During his tenure, Shorewood’s sales grew from USD60 million to USD700 million. Shorewood was sold to International Paper in 2000, where he continued to work as president of Shorewood and an officer of International Paper until 2004. In 2005, he founded Multi-Packaging Solutions (MPS), another specialty packaging platform, with private equity backing. He grew the company to over 70 factories in 14 countries and $2 billion in revenue. MPS went public in 2015 and was eventually acquired in 2017 by WestRock (WRK). Shore stayed at WRK until August 2020.

In November 2021, Shore founded Max Solutions along with industry veteran Dennis Kaltman, who is now the president of Max Solutions.

Kaltman has more than 20 years of experience in the print and packaging industry. He started his career with Queens Group, where he was senior vice-president from 1990 to 1998. When Queens Group was acquired by Shorewood Packaging in 1998, he was named senior vice-president. Following the acquisition of Shorewood by International Paper, Kaltman served as senior vice-president of the home entertainment packaging division. Kaltman joined Shore at MPS in May 2005, a few months after it was founded. He first served as executive vice-president and COO but was then named president in August 2007 and given responsibility for the global branded consumer market in February 2014.

Needless to say, Shore and Kaltman have extensive experience in the global specialty packaging segment, especially in the consumer and healthcare segments. At Max, they’ve made significant investments in next-generation technology. Their Bristol, P.A., facility opened in July 2022 and their Concord, N.C., facility opened in December 2022.

Canadian connection

Both Shore and Kaltman have been operating in Canada since 1982.

In a press release, Kaltman said, “Both Marc and I have operated in Canada for many years with Multi Packaging Solutions and before that, Shorewood Packaging, dating back to 1984. We’re thrilled to be back. The Ellis family has made significant investments in technology and capabilities over the years. They’ve built a talented team with valuable skill sets and we look forward to working closely with them to continue their legacy of innovation and exceptional customer service.”

According to Shore, the Ellis Group will eventually become Max Solutions Canada.

“We recognize – and appreciate – the equity Ellis has with customers and within the industry. So we’ll work to make the transition as seamless and thoughtful as possible and limit confusion for the customer,” said Shore.

For now though, all the three Ellis locations are operating normally as they were pre-acquisition. Shore and Kaltman have made some organizational changes, “which embrace a lot of the senior leadership within Ellis.”

“Max Solutions will continue to invest in the Toronto facilities to enhance manufacturing, planning, and scheduling capabilities to better serve and communicate with our customers. Additionally, we will leverage our supply chain relationships to ensure raw materials are always available,” added Shore.

From a facility footprint and capability standpoint, the acquisition has expanded Max’s ability to serve the market and the breadth of its customer base. The company will also enjoy greater scale with respect to working with suppliers.  

An edited version of this article originally appeared in the January/February 2023 issue of PrintAction.

The partners to the initiative recognize it is only through cross-industry collaboration that progress can be made. Founded in 2019, German startup Wildplastic aims to clean the environment from plastic waste. In co-operation with communities of collectors, the start-up works globally to collect “wild” plastic from beaches, landfills, and illegal dumpsites. In spring 2019, Wildplastic started selling the first trash bag that is 100 per cent made of recycled plastic. Currently, their focus is on sourcing low density polyethylene (LDPE) such as bubble wrap or certain food packaging. LDPE cannot yet be widely recycled, so the market collection incentive for it is still limited. Wildplastic wants to change this by creating a demand for this material and showcasing the potential of post-consumer LDPE recycling. After collection, the plastic is transported to a recycling partner who washes, melts and processes it into granules. These recyclate granules are then sent to a production partner and used as a substitute for virgin LDPE material. This material is then used to create trash bags and mail bags. A broader scope of applications may be possible if the materials could be successfully deinked first.

In 2021, Wildplastic and the Institute of Circular Resource Engineering and Management (CREM) of Hamburg University of Technology (TU-Hamburg) started a co-operative research and development project, financed by the Investment and Development Bank of Hamburg (IFB), to study the feasibility of improving the quality of LDPE-recyclates from post-consumer sources. Evonik is supporting this project as a co-operative partner.

“We started to conduct research on deinking of post-consumer plastic waste with Wildplastic about one year ago. As a technical university, it is important to carry out meaningful research relevant to the real-world problem. From our project, we have learned that a successful circular economy only works by motivating all the stakeholders involved. Siegwerk, as the producer of printing ink, can play an important role in this context since it brings the producer’s perspective to solve the problem in the beginning,” said Jinyang Guo from the Institute of Circular Resource Engineering and Management (CREM) at TU- Hamburg during a kick-off meeting between the partners in November 2022.

Siegwerk is supporting Wildplastic in this initiative by providing the deinking chemistry and knowledge to enable the creation of clean recyclates. In order for successful deinking to occur, a precise combination of the right ink chemistry, the right deinking detergent and the right process needs to be applied. Inks on packaging can often be a hinderance to recycling, as the inks degrade during the recycling process and can contaminate the recyclates, leading to unpleasant odours or unsightly colours. Even if the inks are not totally removed, the opportunities for recycling are increased exponentially.

“It is a pleasure to work with our partners from Wildplastic and from the University of Hamburg on this topic. We have a strong can-do attitude in common. The scientific perspective and the conscientiousness contributed by Jinyang helps us to maintain a fact-based and objective view, not only in the design of experiments, but also in the interpretation of results. Wildplastic has the ambition to benefit from deinking in their recycling activities in just a few months and brings in an industrial perspective,” said Ingo Fehr, senior project manager at Siegwerk.

“We have started this collaboration with Jinyang and the University about one year ago following our deep interest to find a solution for specific washing needs for highly challenging post-consumer plastic film materials in a small scale batch operation. From day one we have worked together in a very open and solution-orientated way and with shared passion. It’s all about getting the right people together, therefore we are extremely happy to share our results and to extend our collaboration with the team at Siegwerk,” said Wildplastic co-founder Dieter Gottschalk.

Over the last three to four years, the world’s environmental consciousness was raised by young activists marching on Fridays to draw attention to the need for reduction of greenhouse gases in all sectors of life. The task to improve, however, is not for one person or company alone, but for many to think within their areas of influence and expertise whether they can contribute positively toward this goal, and then take steps to do so.

Although flexographic plates only represent a tiny fraction of the overall package environmental footprint impact, it should nevertheless be the goal of everyone using these plates to not simply accept the current status quo, but to constantly strive to push boundaries higher and higher, leveraging philosophies such as Kaizen, a Japanese strategy where employees at all levels of a company work together proactively to achieve regular, incremental improvements to the manufacturing process.

In flexo platemaking today, a variety of different technologies are used in various markets. Some are less hazardous, such as water-wash or thermal plate making, but the vast majority, representing approximately 70 per cent of all flexographic operations, use hydrocarbon-based solvents to wash out their flexo plates. This not only requires a specialized production room environment, but also may contribute to a hazardous ambient working environment in the platemaking room if not handled well.

Based on that data, the author has looked at a large segment of solvent wash platemaking users in our industry to find ways to suggest how these operations can modify their platemaking process, helping them to take action to reduce their environmental footprint.

The magic trick and answer to improve the environmental footprint is: “Plate relief depth reduction.”

Looking at flexible packaging, one of the largest segments of flexographic printing representing a global market share of approximately 25 to 30 per cent, a standard plate relief depth of 0,6 mm with a 1,14 mm (45 thou) plate gauge is being used. The relief depth, however, is changing region by region. Whereas Europe was more conservative in allowing a large margin of tolerance between the printing element and the base floor, on the South American continent, printers have long used a plate relief depth of 1/3 of that standard plate thickness, with a plate relief depth of about 0,35 mm being more commonly used in that hemisphere.

What are the advantages of reducing the plate relief depth and what are the limits of technical tolerance before the floor of the plate hits the substrate? A printing project was set up to confirm the limits and highlight potential improvements.

A full platemaking and printing trial was arranged using different plate relief depths starting at 0,6 mm and going down to 0,1 mm for a 1,14 mm (45 thou) plate.

Plate back exposure

The plate back exposure time needs to be elongated to polymerize more plate material. For a relief depth of 0,6 mm a UVA energy of approx. 330 mJ is needed and for 0,3 mm an energy of 1000 mJ.

Exposure amount in mJ.

This back exposure time can be partially compensated by a reduction of the main exposure time as the plate is largely polymerized.

As an example, for a relief depth of 0,3 mm, the back exposure time is elongated by approximately a factor of three.

Plate washout time

The industry uses a large variety of washout solvents, and it is therefore recommended that flexo platemaking operations check their individual conditions using their equipment, plate and solvent specifications.

Top relief depth vs. washout speed.

For a good plate washout time, we always calculate a safety margin of 0,2 mm and add that to the plate relief depth. This safety margin takes account of the fluctuation of washout solvent quality and should be added. So, in our example of a relief depth target of 0,3 mm, we would look at a 0,5 mm washout relief depth with the safety margin included. In that case, the washout time would be approximately 165 mm/min for a relief depth of 0,3 mm vs. 90 mm/min for a relief depth of 0,6 mm. The washout speed improvement would be approximately 80 per cent if we target a relief depth of 0,3 mm.

Polymer waste in the washout solvent

Reduced polymer waste material on shallower relief depth plate.

In the above illustration, it is easy to see that a flexo plate with a relief depth of, for example, 0,3 mm is washed out with 50 per cent less polymer waste in the washout solvent compared to a flexo plate with a relief depth of 0,6 mm. The standard solvent processor today replenishes solvent on the basis of polymer content or viscosity of the washout solvent. Hence, a company which reduces the plate relief depth from 0,6 mm to 0,3 mm can wash two plates instead of one before solvent replenishing in the tank is required. This is a massive saving of 50 per cent of solvent in your operations just by lowering the plate relief depth, and it is a big step toward operating with a better carbon footprint.

Plate drying time

Plate drying time at 60 C.

The plate drying time depends on the length of time the plate has been in contact with the solvent. Hence, with a washout speed of 90 mm/min, a plate will be more swollen with solvents than a plate, which was washed out at much faster speed. Subsequently, if the plate is submerged into solvent at a much faster processing speed, the recovery time to nominal plate thickness in the dryer is quicker than for a plate that spends a longer time in the washout equipment.

In the example of a relief depth of 0,6 mm, the plate washout speed was adjusted to 90 mm/min, giving a plate drying time of approximately 120 min. The washout speed of a plate washed with a relief depth of 0,3 was 165 mm/min, resulting in a plate drying time of approximately 75 min to recover back to nominal thickness. This also equates to an approximate reduction in energy use by the dryer from 4,8 KW down to 3 KW per m² of plate material used.

Printing test

Despite all the solvent, time and energy savings, the biggest concern, of course, is whether the plate floor would print using a shallow plate relief depth.

In the example below, we worked at the DFTA-TZ facility of the Stuttgart University and printed the different relief depth plates with a setting of 70 microns extra pressure over Kiss Print. Anilox pressure was 60 microns of extra pressure.

The numbers on the top of the print sample indicate the different relief depths of 0,6 mm on the left and 0,5 mm on the right.

We compared the dot gain curves between the different plate relief depths and concluded all curves are very similar and can be used without the need to make adjustments to printing curves. However, a small adjustment might be considered by the local repro on a case by case basis as we could not confirm the dot gain for longer run production jobs.

Dot gain curves at different relief depth

In addition to the print dot gain curve, we also analyzed the highlight dot anchoring on the plate floor. As can easily be seen in the previous illustration repeated below, the dot anchoring is much more stable compared to the plate with higher relief depth, giving added rub resistance to the plate, which is particularly useful for long runs. Hence, the plate quality is increased as well.

Improved dot anchoring stability on shallower relief depth.

To the surprise of the participants, while we thought that the 0,1 mm relief depth would be impossible to print, that was not the case. There was a small area at the tail edge of the plate which actually printed from the plate floor, but the rest was fine. For that reason, we do not recommend using a plate relief depth of 0,1 mm. Going to the next higher relief of 0,2 mm, it was confirmed this relief depth poses no problem when printing, nether in terms of dot gain curve nor in terms of plate cleanliness.

For customers who want to push flexo printing to the limit with modern machinery and high printing quality, this is certainly a relief depth to consider. For all other users, we would recommend the safer plate relief depth of 0,3 mm to 0,4 mm. This maintains enough tolerance to avoid any possible printing trouble, it considerably improves plate quality and, most importantly, improves the environmental footprint of the platemaking production.

Conclusion

The message of this practical exercise is that anyone can make a significant contribution to the environmental footprint of platemaking in their company at a local level by taking these described actions while improving the overall quality and environmental footprint of flexographic printing as a whole. There is no need to wait; and flexographic printing will gain more recognition as the environmentally sustainable printing technology of choice.

The relief depth reduction may vary slightly depending on the washout solvent or plate material used, but it will always show a significant impact of the advantages explained. The benefits of environmental improvements are primarily seen in the hydrocarbon washout solvent process, but this process can likewise be used in water-wash or other platemaking technologies too. Whether to use 0,2 mm, 0,3 mm or 0,4 mm, relief depth should be decided by each customer, but it is no longer reasonable for a relief depth of 0,6 mm for 1,14 mm plates to be classified as a standard from a technical point of view. This is especially true today that, as we consider the changing environmental climate, we all examine our platemaking processes to make as much of a contribution as possible to reduce our carbon footprints.

Taking this approach over time, it dramatically adds up savings of washout solvent and reduction of drying energy costs and plate production time. By extension, it reduces our industry carbon footprints, improving our climate impact and opening the chance for anyone to participate.

Dieter Niederstadt is the technical marketing manager at Asahi Photoproducts.

I believe all costs must be recovered from customers, but the timing and process is different. Direct cost increases like paper can be recovered per job, but indirect expenses like rent hikes may be recovered in time.

Budget estimates are based on two types of expenses. Historical costs refer to allocation of labour, overheads, utilities, equipment depreciation, maintenance, training, IT and software, misc. items, etc. These are identified in accounting records, and usually recovered through using budgeted hourly rates, (BHR). Future costs, such as paper, ink, and distribution, are as calculated, and often purchased and calculated for the specific job. BHRs are adjusted on an annual basis.

In recent times, printers were able to justify and collect paper cost increases because with the supply shortage, the paper could be used for other customers who were willing to pay. Other costs were also increasing. However, it’s not practical to identify and recover the impact of a 25 per cent increase in rent from one job. If the company temporarily absorbs the cost increases, then they should plan on future recovery or offset the increase by reducing other expenses, such as staff training.

Typically, a department manager is responsible for balancing the budget, as there are ongoing changes during a fiscal year. Failure to recover costs or offset with spend reduction will result in reduced margins or profits. Repeated failure will create a loss and jeopardize the company’s financial stability.

New fiscal year

With a new year approaching, it is time to review the budgeted hourly rates and adjust as appropriate. However, this is not an opening to make adjustments without due considerations. You must plan to recover all costs related to the business. However, if the new rates are above market rates, you will risk losing business to competitors over time. If this is the case, then review budgets to see what discretionary costs can be reduced. Typically, the first to be reduced are training, marketing, and customer expenses. This would be a short-term corrective action because a healthy business needs to make these investments to be a successful operation.

Another method to reduce cost is to increase efficiency through improved workflow or automation. If your MIS is integrated and operating effectively, you may be able to process more orders with fewer staff and without staff burnout. Intentionally understaffing without providing your team the tools to be effective will only increase errors and turnover.

Don’t forget utilization

In addition to cost, utilization impacts BHR. If your utilization has dropped from 80 to 70 per cent and is expected to stay at that level for the next year, then that will increase your BHR calculation. For example: 

$100/hour BHR cost/80 per cent = $125/hour sell rate;

$100/hour BHR cost/70 per cent = $143/hour sell rate.

The market will determine the price. Therefore, if your utilization dropped, the corrective action may not be to change the calculations, but to increase utilization through sales. 

These are a few suggestions to help you plan as you move forward in 2023.      

Bob Dale is co-founder of Connecting for Results, the management consulting company focused on the graphics communications industry. He can be reached at b.dale@cfrincorporated.com.  

Marketing optimization starts with the four Rs which make up the baseline benchmark:

1. Reach – Estimated number of potential clients you can talk to with the campaign.
2. Response – Indicators of marketing success including website traffic growth, sales qualified leads generated, sales opportunities and e-commerce basket fulfilment.
3. Revenue – A clear business outcome demonstrated with a sales conversion; but are they are the right clients to meet the business objectives?
4. Retention – Maximize return on your marketing investment by establishing the opportunity for customer relationship management (CRM) and understand how much investment will be required to create such a relationship.

A direct link between marketing performance and business success should be established by setting realistic and relevant business priorities and marketing objectives. It should be a simple evaluation structure that’s obvious and easy for any team member to understand.

Important too is an attainable return on investment (ROI) defined by carefully considered strategies, tactics, and channels. By testing and learning the most effective content, creative, offers and promotions can be identified. When and where, and which target audience is most profitable questions can also be answered.

To identify improvements, set best performance benchmarks by evaluating the total number of impressions your campaigns have generated and what percentage of those have filtered down to responses, qualified leads, sales conversions, and revenue.

Essential to keep sight of is customer acquisition cost (CAC), calculated by comparing the amount of money invested in attracting clients with the numbers of actual clients gained. Strategies that can help include conversion rate optimization (CRO) to make it easy and obvious for visitors to convert to leads, adding value, creating a client referral programme, and streamlining your sales cycle. Consider too customer lifetime value (LTV) or the predicted revenue that one client will generate over the course of their relationship with your organization. It represents the ultimate ROI – a strong, growing relationship that evolves to become client advocacy.

The clear communication of results attained can be provided in a marketing report that states how the campaign’s client touchpoints performed. It should draw connections with the wider business to remain relevant, provide details on engagement (reach), conversion (response) and ROI (revenue) as well as also forecasting retention. The report can be used to shape future marketing strategy and tactics, as well as define the budget investment.

In a highly active and agile world marketing needs to constantly move forward. With marketing optimization, print service providers (PSPs) can learn just as much, if not more, from a failure as they can from success, and identify ways to do better, achieve more and increase ROI. It allows you to explore opportunities and accurately assess results that will help define future approaches.

Mark Hinder is responsible for business development programmes, Graphic Communications, Ricoh Europe.

In a world of highly targeted, personalized marketing communication, sustained customer relationships are created across multiple communication platforms. Customer engagement marketing (CEM) is vital. CEM happens when brands use personalized communication to guide their audience through a planned customer journey. From lead to sale, it’s all about a welcoming and nurturing a relationship.

Customer engagement can take a number of different forms.

Creating impactful content
Content provides the substance to your communication, gives it purpose and ultimately, delivers the tactics to meet the strategy. Brands use great content for acquisition and retention. To achieve that, identify who you want to be your company’s spokesperson and develop interesting content that resonates. Your content should address your audience directly and respond to their wants and needs. Creating and publishing appropriate content means you’ll need to fully understand the customer lifecycle states, which range from prospect to new customer to loyal brand fan, and their pain points. Offering solutions will be valuable. Examples include ‘5 Top Tips,’ ‘4 How Tos’, or ‘3 Did You Knows.’

Being creative
You don’t have to be a creative genius to produce great marketing creative. However, you do need to know what’s relevant to your clients to build a foundation for compelling creativity that engages, inspires, and sells. Start with a creative audit that evaluates every aspect of your business. Then, look at ways to stand out and establish common ground with your audience. Colour your creativity to influence people’s moods, productivity, and behaviour. Research from the CCI Colour Institute and the University of Winnipeg indicates that between 60 and 90 per cent of our judgements on brands, products and our clothing are based on colour. Cool colours like blue and green recede from the eye and are used to calm our reactions. Warm colours, such as red and orange, advance so they increase our heart rate and energy. Paying attention to graphics, fonts and words can also influence tone of voice and grab attention.

Ensuring relevance
Consider how relevant you are to your clients’ wants and needs. Brands tend to be one of the following:

• Customer focused with a customer obsession mindset. They find out who their customers really are, not just what they buy, and meet core wants and needs.
• Pragmatic – they take bold steps, make smart business bets, and often move on from failure and experiments quickly. They have their products available when the customer needs them and can deliver consistent customer experiences.
• Innovative and obsessed with what competitors are doing and what customers are yearning for. They know that without constant innovation, they won’t still be around tomorrow. They create emotional customer connections and earn long-term trust.
• Inspiring industry leaders that push the status quo and engage with their customers in new and creative ways. They also find new opportunities to meet their customers’ wants and needs.
• Achieving relevance is not just about what you say – it’s where and when you say it. Communication must be meaningful, of the right length and in the right place.

Using digital marketing
Explore social platforms and the different communication opportunities they offer, use digital search advertising, and consider digital display advertising. Also transform your website into a dynamic marketing hub and consider how your website can help continue conversations.

Choosing print
People react to print because it’s tactile. It’s a different way to consume communications and therefore works on our subconscious brain in subtle, effective ways. Direct mail is as responsive today as it’s always been and still outperforms social media. A multi-part DM piece demands to be explored in its many component parts. Print has many benefits. For example, brand recall for print ads is higher than for digital display, and printed information requires less effort to process by our overloaded brains.

Wow them with digital print enhancement
Build closer relationships with your clients by demonstrating that you are a partner rather than a supplier. One who is proactive and full of ideas that can support their business. The extraordinary effects and impact that can be conjured up by digital print enhancement make it the kind of suggestion that can earn their trust and loyalty.

Letting your clients have their say
Customer generated marketing (CGM) is changing the way companies seek out, convert, and retain customers in the digitally driven world. It’s a world where people place higher value on the opinions of strangers than they do on established brands. It’s a world where noone is afraid to voice an opinion, or idea, so print companies simply have to listen. It’s also an effective way for you to get great ideas. It works best with loyal fans where client idea generation can be encouraged with incentivization.

These are just some of the many impactful ways customer engagement can be developed. By exploring some, or all, of these print service oroviders can start new conversations with their clients and strengthen existing relationships.

Mark Hinder is responsible for business development programs in the Graphic Communications division of Ricoh Europe.

Taking on transactional work can be a daunting task for unprepared direct marketing mailers. There are many things to consider before making the transition. One of the biggest is defining the starting point, as there are so many areas of complexity with transactional mail. For one, the added security required to process transactional work can be a deterrent. Jumping straight into PCI and HIPAA work can be risky and intimidating for businesses with limited expertise in this area. However, many marketing mailers have made the transition by taking it slowly and committing to invest in training, people, and workflow software.

Top considerations before taking the leap

Transactional mail is designed to be a completely automated process, so workflow is one of the most important factors that can make or break profitability. For example, when the data files arrive, they are run through an auditing and validation process before becoming print files. In most organizations, this is a touchless workflow. If approvals are required, a good workflow solution will push this responsibility back to the client. This is a slightly different process than direct marketing mail as many marketing mail applications involve a one-off setup that is handled manually. To make a profit and reduce errors, transactional mail requires a touchless workflow that automates data auditing and provides visibility and graphical, real-time reporting to all key stakeholders.

Software is another area where marketing mailers can thrive or fail. Creating the mail piece, correspondence or piece of communication is relatively easy for a good marketing mailer. Direct marketing mailers are experts at personalization and many of them have superior graphics skills and understand one-to-one marketing better than transactional mailers. These skills, combined with a strong knowledge of colour and the manufacturing process, set them up very well to ensure success. However, most transactional data require CASS/PAVE postal data processing that needs to be completed against pre-defined business rules with no human intervention. Many smaller marketing mailers are not set up with the correct software components to automate postal processing.

Another area of consideration is job feedback. Customers expect real-time updates to be delivered via email and most require a web portal where they can see the status of their files 24 hours a day. The software used for transactional mail needs to provide low-code workflow setup, email job alerts, web-based secure job approval and workflow dashboards and reporting.

Next, look at the management and culture changes needed to handle transactional work. This starts with the need for the sales team to have a comprehensive understanding of mail. Transactional mail contracts are often multi-year agreements with weeks or months of set up and testing, so it can be challenging for a customer to move to a new provider. Sales staff that usually sells direct marketing mail will have to be educated on the terms, processes and specific details required of transactional mailers. It is very important to fully understand what customers look for in a transactional mailer.

Inkjet-based production environment

Inkjet has removed many of the differences between transactional statement-style printing and marketing mail. Direct marketing mailers have always been amazing at personalization, but business rules and turnaround times of transactional mail created issues for those trying to make the transition in the past, as they did not have fast enough printers. Inkjet has solved this issue. Most inkjet systems are fast enough to meet even the tightest same-day mailing requirements for any size organization.

For transactional mail, inkjet has simplified the paper stock requirements with the ability to replace pre-printed forms to enable many organizations to remove racks and racks of pre-printed paper and utilize technology, such as personalized layouts and one-to-one images, that marketing mailers have been using for years. Inkjet has not only made it easier to make the transition to transactional business, but it has also given marketing mailers a large advantage: Many of them are experts at dealing with large PDF print files and hundreds or thousands of high-resolution images, whereas transactional mailers traditionally managed rather small data files and all the resources were called from the printer controller as needed. Inkjet presses, combined with PDF-centric workflows, have been a catalyst for enabling the worlds of marketing mail and transactional billing to merge.

Making the move

Direct marketing can be very lucrative. However, volumes and demands change during certain times of the year and can affect a company’s financial stability. When a recession hits, marketing budgets are the first to get cut. Conversely, transactional mail is necessary as part of many industries’ regulatory obligations, requiring an exceptional level of precision manufacturing that can bring risk. On the upside, it is repeatable and contracted and arises on a set schedule every day, week, or month. Traditionally, transactional mail enables mailers to forecast and schedule staff and is terrific for keeping steady volumes, which, for a marketing mailer, can allow them to weather extremely tough times.

Transactional mail contracts can be a challenge to secure and require a high level of accuracy, but if a direct marketing mailer is up to the challenge, it can offer a reliable cushion and enable a business to grow into a long-term, profitable revenue source. 

Adam Armstrong is product manager at Crawford Technologies, a provider of document solutions that streamline, improve and manage customer communications. Visit www.crawfordtech.com.

An edited version of this article originally appeared in the September/October 2022 issue of PrintAction.

This technique creates an image for relief printing by hand cutting the stone surface. The stone is then inked by hand, with multiple colours at one time. The used art paper typically is 100 per cent cotton, acid-free, soft-sided, deckle edge, and well suited for these limited-edition art prints. The paper is then placed over the inked stone and paper is then burnished to transfer the ink to the paper.

This process is painstakingly continued to create 50 limited edition prints that match, in the judgement of the artist, plus five artist proof copies. The process may be modified from the days of inking wood block type and litho-stones, but it’s the core to a viable business model for the Inuit community in Nunavut.

Besides the use of technology, another interesting fact is the business model they employ. Most business models are based originally upon an entrepreneur who nurtures an idea into a business with hard work and personal sacrifice. The commercial art industry was started in the late 1950’s, thanks to the efforts of James Houston, who worked with the Inuit community to help them build their own business and create this industry.

The Inuit community has a culture that is based on helping one another out of necessity. When a hunter is successful, they would share the excess with other community members who were in need; nothing went to waste. That was for the benefit of the entire community. The current business model follows the same mode. The printing operation is part of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative Ltd. Over 25 per cent of the people in Kinngait earn primary income from the art co-operative, and the work includes prints, carvings, and artwork. The co-operative maintains a Toronto marketing division called Dorset Fine Arts that is responsible for interfacing with galleries, museums, and cultural professionals.

The co-op founders made important decisions early in their existence. One was to involve community members directly with the art creation and manufacturing process, which created economic benefits for the co-op members and their community. The other was to build a sustainable business model that required educational programming and training for co-op membership, management, and executive.

While the commercial print industry goes through phases of specialization and diversification, the successful model used here takes ownership of all processes for creative, content creation, production, marketing, and distribution. There is a lot we can learn from the Inuit business model.

Bob Dale is co-founder of Connecting for Results, the premier management consulting company focused on the graphics communications industry. He can be reached at info@connectingforresults.com.

Pack4Good is a solutions-driven initiative helping the world’s largest fashion, food and beverage, and beauty and care brands eliminate Ancient and Endangered Forests from their packaging supply chains enroute to building a stable supply of low-carbon and circular alternatives.

“From the farmers in and around our vineyards to paper suppliers, packaging producers, and NGO partners, we are all united in our mission of creating an experience that marries beauty, function, luxury, and sustainability under our enduring motto: One quality, the finest,” said Iris Decamps Bret, Veuve Clicquot global head of product, Collections and Innovation. “We are proud to partner with Canopy on the Pack4Good initiative, and to bring the Ecoyellow gift box to our customers.”

“The Veuve Clicquot Ecoyellow checks all the boxes. It proves packaging can be beautiful, luxurious, on-brand, and sustainable,” said Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Canopy. “We are thrilled to have Veuve as part of Pack4Good and for them to lead the way for other brands in reimagining the future of luxury – one that doesn’t compromise on quality or the planet.”

Merger or acquisition are options, but also face many challenges and risks. What is the current state of M+A activity in Canada? Connecting For Results has conducted a study of publicly announced deals involving Canadian companies over the past two years and can share some interesting insights.

We are aware that activity for acquisitions virtually ground to a halt in 2020 due to the pandemic. As expected, there was increased activity in 2021. However, the level of activity increased at a significant pace in 2022. In the first five months, more deals were announced than all of 2021.

Why has activity picked up so much? To a degree there was pent-up demand, with some of the deals-in-progress resuming, but most of those were completed in 2021. 

We have heard from several sellers the pandemic has taken a lot out of them, and they are now dealing with the new challenges of paper shortages and labour challenges.

Since business has picked up for many, and valuations are returning to pre-pandemic levels, with positive trends, many view now is the right time to sell. The new, and significant demands placed on business owners has given them the incentive to consider their work-life balance. Selling a business is not a simple or quick activity, and sellers are often expected to remain engaged for one or more years to support transition activity, if they wish to obtain the highest value for their company.

What’s selling?

With all this activity, what are companies buying? While the spread of purchases appears to be balanced across the industry segments, commercial printers and packaging companies represent the majority of deals. These segments also represent the majority of the companies and print volume in Canada (70 to 75 per cent). There were several closures, especially in the trade segment and cold-set web plants. Some of the commercial transactions were classified as mergers.

This chart represents all activities including closures.

Who is buying?

There has been a lot of discussion about private equity (PE) buyers. While there is PE activity in Canada, we have also added ‘professional buyers’ to this category. This would include large companies/consolidators who employ professionals to review the market, assess the opportunities and put deals together. In all cases, the common element, is that the deal needs to make business sense. The synergies come from different aspects including cost reduction, business growth, and additional capabilities. New reasons to purchase a company include access to paper and labour, which are issues that are projected to remain a problem for at least a year or more.

Many deals that are based on business closures and asset sales are not publicly announced, and there are buyers interested in acquiring ‘destressed’ companies. This has always been the case, especially during times of economic challenges. Generally, very few buyers want to buy unprofitable companies as an operating entity. Most prefer to wait for the company to close, then they may acquire some of the assets, and try to secure their customers/sales. The previous owners are then left to deal with the creditors, leases, contracts, staff, and severances. This activity still requires professional support to make sure that staff, customers, creditors, suppliers, and government agencies are dealt with fairly to limit personal liability. Whatever your perspective and business goals, we wish you success!   

Bob Dale and Gordon Griffiths are with Connecting for Results, the premier management consulting company focused on the graphics communications industry. They can be reached at info@connectingforresults.com.

An edited version of this article originally appeared in the July/August 2022 issue of PrintAction.