The Australian industry is still home to countless family businesses – but fewer than there once were. Some have been taken over by larger groups. Other have fallen by the wayside. Those that remain are widely vexed by the issues of succession planning, as the younger generation shows little desire to follow in their parents' footsteps.
Heaneys Performers in Print is not one of these companies.
Parallel this to the position of women in the printing industry. There are more than 3,000 names in the database of Women In Print (WIP), of which a mere handful occupy the top job – such as managing director or chief executive – of a printing shop. It's a microcosm of the Australian business community as a whole; according to a recent Macquarie University survey, among the chief executives of the nation's top 200 companies, only six are women. Print remains an olds boys' club, and women are rarely elevated to leading position, whether from scarcity or sexism or a mixture of both.
Again, Heaneys Performers in Print does not fit this bill.
The Queensland shop has chartered a course in the opposite direction. It started life as sole proprietorship before being joined by two subsequent equity partners. However, control of the company has since been taken back by Susan Heaney. As both a family member and a woman, she's a rare breed among managing directors.
Heaney today finds herself as sole director at the helm of the Gold Coast-based company that her father, Rob Heaney, founded 30 years ago "to support his golf habits", she recalls.
Early days
At 19, Susan Heaney was recruited as voluntary staff when extra hands were needed. This marked the beginning of a 30-year career with print. Not only is she one of the few women to take the helm of a commercial print shop, she has now risen to the presidency of peak body Printing Industry Association of Australia.
Her position at Heaneys Performers In Print is the result of a series of buyouts; first, she bought out her father in 1999, then she bought out the two equity partners in 2004 and 2007. The family tradition has continued though daughter Rebecca. The 22-year-old pitches in as the company's part-time workplace healthy & safety and environmental officer.
As well as a head for business, Heaney gives back to the industry as an active participant. This includes a seven-year period during which she has held regional and national roles at Printing Industries, culminating in her recent elevation to
role of president.
Through her position with the peak body, Heaney also serves as an alternate director on the board of Media Super and was last year appointed to the PrintEx11 board.
She also serves as a Queensland patron of Women in Print. The organisation seeks to promote this under-presented minority, so does Heaney think the industry would be a better place if more women had more power?
"Yes I do think it would be a better place," she says. "Women from older generations – 1960-70s – traditionally bring a range of skills that men don't, as they often have worked their way up from other positions, such as accounts, customer service, retail and home duties. Having a more diverse range of thinking and way of looking at problems in the industry can only help it," she adds.
Solving problems and bringing a diverse way of thinking has been par for the course throughout more than three decades that Heaney has worked at the company. There have been a number of technological milestones. For instance, it installed its first MIS system in 1998. There was also a significant format swap across its battery of presses.
"We changed the entire operations from an A1 to an A2-plus shop in the mid 2000s, having bitten the bullet in 2003 to replace the old warhorses with new presses," says Heaney. The staunch Heidelberg houses became the first print supplier in Queensland to install a six-colour Speedmaster CD 74 LX-F (a 740x605mm press with coater and extended delivery).
"We followed this two years later with a total re-kit of pre-press and bindery equipment, which gave us the confidence to make our first National Print Award entry," she adds.
More recent was the company's move into digital. It has only been in active production mode for the past 18 months since it invested in a Fuji Xerox 700. While digital work currently only accounts for 5% of turnover, Heaney expects this to rise to 25% within 12 months.
Heaney Performers In Print started life in a minuscule 50m2 unit. It soon moved to a 300m2 factory in Ashmore in 1988, which was left behind in 1998 in preference for the current 1,900m2 premises in Molendinmar Industrial Park. Employee numbers also rose over the intervening years, from a one-man band to more than 60 in 2005, a number that has since decreased.
"This has now been streamlined to 35-40, mainly due to efficiencies facilitated by the newer technology," says Heaney. She adds that over the past two years, the GFC also left its mark, though she is now seeing a definite recovery.
The majority of work comes from the local market but Heaneys also has a NSW sales office in the Sydney suburb of Willoughby, which opened in 2000.
Cross-section of clients
The company's current client roster is widespread over the retail, wholesale, financial and entertainment sectors. She also counts print management companies among her client base, but qualifies this. "We don't work with the large brokers as this becomes too much of a reverse auction with attendant small margins but I do work for small brokers who have sound print industry experience and good business principles."
In terms of the services offered at the company, beyond commercial offset and digital print, it also boasts an in-house design facility. The creative team is not only there to give an added-value angle to the sales team's pitching, but also as a standalone operation.
"In fact, we do work for clients across Australia, the UK, New Zealand and America," she says. In many cases, the Heaneys design team produces a press-ready PDF that is subsequently sent elsewhere in the world for printing.
The fact that her company is located on the Gold Coast is no constraint to its Australia-wide capabilities. She says the sales team covers the entire East Coast and beyond. Proofs for interstate customers are created on the Gold Coast and Sydney and sent across the country.
Heaney says: "Files can be produced here on the coast and be output in Sydney or vice versa moments later with true colour accuracy. In fact our complete workflow is fingerprinted from proof to press, which ensures consistent and accurate colour management throughout the entire process."
As well as strict adherence to colour consistency, the company has strict quality control frameworks in place, led by its ISO 9001 certification. It should come as no surprise that a company with a heavy focus on accreditations and strong links to Printing Industries was Australia's first company to secure the Sustainable Green Print (SGP) certification.
So, crystal ball time. Where does Heaney see the company in the future? "We very much expect to be here, though maybe not in the same form as we are today," she says.
"But Heaneys Performers In Print is here for the longer term. We have always been proactive in systems acquisition and implementation – and I expect we will very much stay on going forward."
Father Rob Heaney's original dream for the business – to support his golf habits – has come to fruition. The retiree's name regularly appears among the winners of events as the Tropical Coast Veterans Open Tournament.
So while Heaney senior is at the Cardwell Club collecting his trophies, his daughter's business acumen should ensure she will stake her place among the winners of many of the industry's awards for years to come.
Susan Heaney on…
… digital growth
While digital is making dramatic inroads into the industry's overall throughput, we should not be overawed by its bells and whistles benefits. It will still be quite some time before it overtakes offset in the broader perspective.
… women outside the top ranks
This is more a product of the past and with all things, they change slowly. If a woman really wants to achieve, there is nothing to stop her in this industry except perhaps self-doubt
… what I'd change about print
The overcapacity in the industry, which of course is out of its hands. However, one aspect that is well within its capability is a change of direction of today's ludicrous approach to pricing.
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