Print Storm manager Paul Cavalier said the company, based in the NSW town of Gulgong, already serviced clients in Sydney and Melbourne, such as the South Sydney Business Chamber and Advance Care.
However, he told ProPrint an imminent move into photobooks would allow the business to serve customers across Australia its home base in a town of 2,500 people.
Cavalier said the April launch would also help the company broaden its customer base, which is currently focused on businesses.
Individuals all over Australia will be able to download software, design their photobooks and then have them printed and shipped by Print Storm, he said.
Cavalier was 18 when he founded Print Storm six years ago. It currently sources about 30% of its revenue from work such as business cards, permits, annual reports and statutory record books for the region’s six mines, according to Cavalier.
The company installed a Fuji Xerox Colour 1000 in February to handle the increased demand.
“Print Storm currently employs 14 staff and is currently putting strategies in place for the year ahead to employ six to eight more press operators and begin running a day and afternoon shift to keep up with demand,” he said.
“The Colour 1000 Press allows us to print on a whole range of stocks that were previously unachievable without moving to offset printing processes. This includes the printing of synthetic stocks for safety tags and various other industrial products.”
The company also plans to release an iPhone app by June to allow customers to get quotes, order and track progress of their jobs.
Cavalier said the easier Print Storm made things for customers, the more likely they were to spend money.
Gulgong Chamber of Commerce secretary Peter Willis said Print Storm was probably the town’s largest employer after the supermarket.
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It is good to see how a seemingly small country town business can set such high standards. I have had the privilege of meeting the Print Storm crew, and seeing first hand the level of professionalism they have in running a successful business. They certainly set a very high standard in the digital space, that the entire print industry could learn from.
Sigh – poor buggers. Can’t blame the FujiXerox sales reps for making an easy kill – they’re under enormous pressure to keep their jobs. Such an expensive piece of kit for a regional printer. Unsustainable really – and the story about Eastmon in Glen Innes (also a regional printer!) makes for an easy sell. The reality is that the photo book market is now highly commodotised, competes with cheap Asian imports, and requires significant infrastructure to really set it up properly (per IT support + finishing + logistics etc). An iOS app and XMPie Storefront + a 1000 is only the half a million dollar (+) entry fee. I really do wish them the best of luck (sick of reading stories about companies going down). But I worry it’s just another digital printer who bought into the dream and invested too far beyond their real, existing market.
Yes, I wish them the very best – and hope their business plan included everything – certainly logistics can be an expensive after thought.