News
Printing.com bucks the trend with sales rise of 15%
Printing.com has defied current economic uncertainty, announcing record sales, profits, earnings per share and dividends.
"We said last year we would focus on expanding our franchise base, and that's what we've done," chief executive Tony Rafferty said.
His company saw 51 new outlets open over the year and the successful launch of Printing.com France. Plans to set up operations in Australia are also still on track, he said.
Printing.com, which has 261 outlets in the UK and Ireland, reported a sales rise of more than 15% to £24.5m in the year ending in April.
Preliminary results revealed an 11% increase in turnover to £13.5m and profit before tax was up nearly 6% to just under £2.5m.
"In this uncertain economic climate, a lot of small printers are putting off big capital investments and buying a slice of our action," he said.
Printers spent an average of £6,000 to £7,000 for a "bolt-on franchise", and Rafferty's company spent £30,000 a month tweaking software to "make life easier" for printers to detail and confirm orders, and to add up payments.
"Who knows if we will see the same size of expansion next year given the economic conditions? But we will seek to push forward and are cautiously optimistic."
Earnings per share rose 2.5% to 3.64p and dividends went up 20% to 3.00p.
Printing.com reported an 11% increase in turnover
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Comments
Colin Thompson - 09 June 2008
Excellent news - more franchise base comment globally. Controlled costs and an excellent `business model` and the `right` people to help them with there business to be successful.
Colin Thompson
Cavendish
www.cavendish-mr.org.uk
Simon Biltcliffe- Webmart - 09 June 2008
Working with each other in a spirit of partnership is the future for successful printers. You can only produce a fraction of what your customers want & if there was an easy way of offering them a service to supply the rest, then there is a great profit opportunity which doesn't cost anything.
Printing.com is half way there- no press investment is needed but you do lose some elements of your identity & there is a franchise cost to invest in.
We are working on ( not ready just yet, but soon) a totally free service to offer printers the ability to offer their clients the full range of quality-assured print so YOU can make a profit and strengthen YOUR relationship with YOUR clients, rather than a print management company coming in between you and them, sucking all the profit out.
After all don't forget in a commoditised market THE ONLY THING THAT CAN'T BE COPIED IS A RELATIONSHIP so you must protect and build on it. This will be a way to do just that, for free.
Simon Biltcliffe
MD
WEBMART Ltd
www.FreePrintSales.com
the start of something big... and FREE!
Julie Cook - 09 June 2008
PLEASE less of the self promoting from Colin Thompson & Simon Biltcliffe, if your own business was so great why are you here making comments - you should be both at work, making millions!!
What I would like to here from the other readers of printweek are the effects of printing.com on your business, and what you've done to promote yourself, how do you compete? What do you think of the ruthless tactics of some of the printing.com franchisees.
I'm more than interested in some competition but when a firm can offer printing for less than COST they don't deserve a place in the print industry. Printing.com I can compete with but freeprintmanagement I Can't. So Simon get off this site please, you're using firms that are or will be going bust.
Simon Biltcliffe- Webmart - 11 June 2008
OK. Facts-of-Life-For-Julie. 1."Ruthless tactics"means I guess you are losing against a more marketing savvy competitor as anything illigal I would get in touch with Printing.com themselves- they will be mortified 2. Their " less than cost" model is based on the economies of scale by aggregating together on standard stock a variety of jobs thereby eliminating the make-ready element giving them a good price advantage and lower overheads than you. 3. As a printer you don't need to compete with FPM, but use FreePrintSales.com which gives you a no-negotiating place you can win some of our £30m print spend and secondly where you can get prices (from other printers like you, in a quality assured environment) to buy work that you can't print for your clients AND SELL IT AT A PROFIT to your clients. We project manage it for you. 4.here is spelt " hear" when you want to listen.
Hope this helps.
Simon
Julie Cook - 17 June 2008
Well Simon I don't compete with printing.com it's a totally different market in which we work in. We help local printers and they sometimes help us. We're a well established firm - over 30 years now. Ruthless tactics are from a few of the local printing.com franchisees on some of the print firms that we use. Ie FPM will be going bust in the the next couple of weeks so I wouldn't place a order there, OK NOT TRUE but do you see my point? Most likely NOT! I have nothing against printing.com in fact I have shares, one of the first at 12p so I've made a nice profit when I come to sell, hopefully around the £1.20 mark. As for loosing against a more marketing savvy competitor, I think not, I don't want another customer. I'm happy with my lot, BUT I do look after my customers and always look for ways in which I can reduce costs, but when your site and many others can quote on certain jobs for less than paper and plate costs something is wrong! I would like to hear more good news from the firms that are surviving or thriving not print management firms that are cutting profits to the bone.
Some of your comments should be left for the bin!!!! ie.:
Bitcliffe The self advertising ego - 09 July 2007
Oooo, listen to me, i'm the self-proclaimed industry commentator. Aint I good. And for each dose of smoke i blow up my own bum I'm advertising my own company as well! Great aren't i?!?!?
As for being in the top 100 print firms, what a joke! Let's put it in your terminolgy £30million pound turnover for FPM MY A***!! If you had that sort of turnover you wouldn't be making comments on printweek!
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