Internet Printers Cutting into Profits

We've had 4 Komori's. L426, S226P, L428 & now a L626.

L426 cost us 145k in 1996 - we traded in for the L428 at 90k against a purchase price of 165k. The we traded the L428 at 75K against 187k for the 626.

Installation took 5 days, but we've been operational from power-on on day 1.
DDJ were very good - a few teething issues mainly with the Ir unit needing some parts. Otherwise painfree install. Not so with the L428 - 5 weeks before we got saleable sheets off it. That was Knights (Martin Knight).

Btw we charge 15 per col m/r & 18 per plate. And yes we vary our price too - depending on customer and volumes of orders placed.

Do you have inhouse artworking? We have 3 Apple G4 workstations up for sale - with shedloads of 'extras' - see our ad in the classifieds.

 

Yes i do inhouse artwork, but i do it all on g5's. but i will try and find a buyer for you for those, i think their iis a prepress dealer in the norh that buys such things but i have forgoten his name. but not many ppl want g4s any more.it ooks like you did quite well with the sale of the 28. i will get back to you about that dealer, but i think your price is quite high

 

richard, i am wondering if you could help me, do you know how to work out the age of a komori using the serial number, is it possible or would i have to contact A komori agent. Thanks in advance

 

Hi ob1 you could try David Jarrett - I think he has a database.

If the Komori has a PQC open the doors and check the dates of manufacture on the various PCBs - although not conclusive they usually are accurate to within 12months. Also date of manufacture is not necessarily date of first installation.

 

Sales

Hello, I've been a broker for about 3 and half years looking to start buying my own equipment. Can anyone shoot me some pointers on how you get your clients? Do you have sales reps, direct mail? What strategies work best for you?

Any response is greatly appreciated.

 

internet marketing works well for some printers

The annual reports show 67 Million dollar annual gain for only one printer relying on internet based marketing.

Here is a great internet deal for you: 100 "free" postcards will "cost" you nothing PLUS $20 for recycled paper (since when does recycled paper cost so much), $22.50 for "fast" shipping in 3 business days but "only" $7.50 if you are willing to wait 3 extra weeks after job is done, and 'ONLY' $165.00 if you want to customize anything beyond their prebuilt template . vistaprint prices are not always cheaper, but one reason small printers are going out of business is they buy into the hype ads on the web, rather than understand their advantages (honest prices for a high quality product turned around quickly and delivered to customer's front door exactly as expected). I forgot, after getting the "free" job, you now have to put up with vistaprint's advertisement on a CUSTOMER'S postcard he is going to send out to potential clients. Can you imagine any of our clients accepting putting our logo next to theirs on thier postcards ?

Some of the internet "trade" printers pricing strategy is also interesting. Seems like they can do the job for 50% of what it would cost to get it locally, but then comes the surprise (shipping will double the price) Right, like it will cost $500 to ship out a carton across a couple of states. Then, they'll only accept using their prestocked papers and only with your money upfront and no terms. How many clients would really accept such outrageous way of untrustable business model?

If you are willing to wait a few months, you can really save buying from china since labor is so "cheap" though. As long as you don't mind picking it up at the airport, and if anything is wrong, eating the costs with no reprecussions for the china based printer None of my customers will take these terms, but I'll try again tomorrow, maybe they'll do it

But if you can't beat them, join them. hire an internet marketing company, build an advanced SEO based web ordering system, only offer templates and only certain papers to get a job "cheaper" and then add your own logo on the job and double the price for "shipping and handling" costs.

 

I use to work for a printshop that did all the printing for a "top" internet gang run company ( before 4over really came out ). I noticed, with this company, like most other internet printers, they stick to the simple stuff. Such as 12pt business cards with either AQ or U.V. coating and 100# text for brochures or posters. Yes, some internet companies will offer more.. Whenever someone wanted something out of our normal options, we would charge out the butt, mostly because we didnt want to do it. Our costs were based on the fact that we got our paper and process inks cheaply because of the large quantity we would order at one time. So if someone ordered a different paper and a pms color we would make that much off of it as we did with the normal jobs. As far as quality, it pretty much sucks. I was the shift supervisor and ran the 6 color U.V. press and everything was about quantity, not quality. I use to let alot of things fly ( such as hickies or debris on the blanket ) because I didnt have time to stop the press. Plus, since your gang running, not every business card on the sheet is going to have perfect registration. I usually made no more that one make ready and then started running whether or not i was really ready - sometimes no make readies, just flagged it after 100 sheets.

Also just so you know.. that internet company i printed for had 3 different websites. 1 of them would be a higher cost, another would be a medium price and the last would be the cheap site. However, you could call the customer service number for one of the sites and talk to someone and then hang up and call a different site and possibly get the same exact person on the phone lol.

Some of these small printers just need to make a website of there own just to keep up with that aspect of printing.. im also a web designer if any wants too

 

i have never droppped my prices to get a job, admittedly ive lost work because others are cheaper, for instance i was asked to sign a van, after telling the customer how much it was, he said that there is a bloke down the road who would do it for £30.00 less.
I told him to go there, as far as im concerned he is a busy fool with no profit.
My customers know that they are paying more than internet prices and such, but for this they have my personal guarantee on all work and time scales, and also the personal touch of coming in having a coffee while we sit down and design your printing / signs

 

Hi everyone

Although we offer batch printed items and so are reasonably cost effective, it is still difficult to match some "internet based printers" - but I do think their profite must be so low they may run into problems long term.

Our site is http://www.sheffield-printers.co.uk

Any comments welcome

 

Outsource to them and focus on your specialties.

We are one of the online digital printers you refer to. We're aware that we cut into other businesses profits on some products. However, in our case, we have a relatively small product line compared to more traditional printers. And since we're digital only, there gets to be a certain point where the quantity doesn't balance with the price and people are better off going offset. In most cases, I think offset printers are better off focusing and that stuff and not even trying to get small to medium-run copy jobs.

With our main staples, e.g. color copies, booklets, books, we definitely do undercut most brick-and-mortar shops (not to say we're not brick-and-mortar -- we're still pretty small and family owned, but we're online-only). However, there are a lot of printers who outsource their color copy jobs to us. Since ours are usually only 8 cents or less a piece, this gives those printers the opportunity to jack up the price a little bit, and the customer will STILL be psyched that they're not paying the 49 cents places like Kinko's asks.

The real trick for those printers is keeping their customers from finding out about us. Which is fine on our part. We're still getting their business, and we're helping other printers flourish.