Seven over 70: Keith Ferrel

This article was first published in the November 2020 issue of Australian Printer magazine

Having just turned 70 this year, Keith Ferrel is known in the industry for being an innovator in print and is said by many to have relished the opportunities for change and growth within the print industry.

Ferrel, who is the general manager of operations at Cactus Imaging, founded the business alongside Warwick Spicer in 1992. Ferrel was 41 years of age and Spicer, 52 years of age then and they both pioneered large format digital print in Australia and New Zealand.

“Warwick was the CEO of New Zealand Newspapers and I was the sales and marketing director of Auckland Star. He came in one Friday and said “I’m quitting and so are you, and on Monday we’re starting a printing business”. And I said, “Well, what do you know about printing?” to which he replied “As much as you – nothing.” For me, it was a huge jump from sales and marketing to go into print,” Ferrel said.

“Warwick had been in Germany and seen an electrostatic printer and said that’s the way the future is going to go.”

Both Ferrel and Spicer then bought an electrostatic printer and started a print shop in New Zealand. For the first few months, they endeavoured to make a mark in the New Zealand print market as technology was moving away from analog to digital.

“We’ve come up through an era where we were never involved in any analog or screen printing. We bypassed all of that.”

The duo then saw an opportunity to expand into Australia, so gave themselves 12 months to beef up the New Zealand office with staff before making their move.

“When we got here, we worked out of our units the first 12 months, then moved to a serviced office in North Sydney. We were selling here, printing them in New Zealand, them couriering them back here. In 1995, we were selling here and printing in New Zealand more than we were selling and printing in New Zealand itself,” he said.

As a result, in 1996, Cactus Imaging set up its first production plant in Australia and in four years, grew to hire about 40 people.

“We saw further opportunities printing billboards and bigger prints because back in the day there was only one company in Australia producing billboards – MMT. So, we ended up buying a solvent printer and our printer buying spree began and the rest became history,” Ferrel said.

After Ferrel helped get its Australian operations on its feet, he became instrumental in the business’ launch of a branch in India in 2000, driven by Warwick and Dan (our partner in the US). Cactus has since sold its Indian subsidiary but Ferrel said he has always been driven by technological changes in the industry.

“We kept reinvesting in the business, we weren’t just satisfied with staying in New Zealand. We wanted to expand our horizons. The timing was perfect as the industry was also seeing many technological changes at that time,” he mentioned.  

“Even when the Olympics was on in Australia in 2000, we spent over $1 million in new equipment when the industry was taking a bit of a dive after the Olympics. While people were struggling and not spending a lot of money, we were.

“We mortgaged everything we had, got our hands on every credit card known to man and got through it that way. There were times when Warwick and I would go without any money so that we could pay our staff.”

For Ferrel, the biggest challenge in his career was getting accepted in the Australian market.

“Coming from New Zealand, the market in Australia was very jealously guarded, but the people that did give us a go, oOh!media being one of them, let us prove that we were just as good as anybody,” he said.

“It came down to perseverance more than anything. We keep the business relevant by diversification. We made a conscious decision in 2006/7 to diversify rather than just be known as just a billboard printer. We bought the right technology, so it gave us a greater scope of delivering on market needs.

“We’ve spent a lot of money on automation as well and that has improved our print accuracies, productivity, efficiencies, time to market, and reduced manpower, especially within the finishing part of the business.”

An advocate for taking risks, Ferrel mentioned that nothing has been too much of a challenge for him.

“If you don’t take risks, you’re going to be left behind. You can’t just sit on your behind and let things go past you. You’ve got to try and lead the market. We’ve made mistakes too, but if you’re not trying you won’t learn from those mistakes,” he said.

His perseverance has also led to Cactus Imaging being the first printer in the world to create fully recyclable printed billboards.

“If you’re printing what you were printing a year ago, you’re not making progress. You’ve got to keep improving what you’re doing. If you’re not aware of what advancements are happening in the world, you’re never going to learn or improve,” he said.

Ferrel is globally recognised as a leader in his field, having been awarded the Fespa World Printer of the year in 2014. He also sits on the Dscoop Global Board as well as the Dscoop APJ Board, and the Fespa Australia Boards.

“I haven’t thought of slowing down; I’m enjoying it far too much at the moment. There will probably come a day when I’ve had enough but it’s not happening in the foreseeable future. I truly enjoy the people and clients that I work with, so that keeps me going,” he added.

“Our dedication to our clients and forever trying to put up the best product available is what people can expect from us and what we at Cactus Imaging will continually strive to do.”

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