Willett’s response was to shift the company’s business focus to smaller quantities, shorter schedules, a service-oriented approach and facilities that lock customers into the business .
Biddles’ core market is academic publishing, where the key challenge is that books are reprinted and sold over a long period of time. Manufacturers are influenced by unit costs and the sales projection of a title. Yet until recently, the unit cost of producing small quantities of books remained expensive. What Willett proposed was a service called Publisher’s Choice, which offered a fixed unit cost between 100 and 700 copies and for any subsequent printings. This universal price point was designed to encourage publishers to reduce first print runs without having to shoulder ruinous costs.
The concept stemmed from Willett’s work at Cambridge University Press (CUP), where he had used digital print to produce shorter print runs more profitably, considering the lifecycle costs of a book rather than the costs of each run. At Biddles, he hoped to bring this model to the commercial market as well as gain some equity in the business.
After taking control of the business, Willett determined that the organisation required a complete restructuring in order to implement his plans.
Into action
Biddles’ owner, the Baird Group, commissioned PricewaterhouseCooper to review Willett’s plan.
PwC approved it as ‘appropriate for the marketplace’ but told Baird that the plan’s high risk levels were only accentuated by the fact that its key architect – Rod Willett – had no stake in the business. In late 2004, the Baird Group offered Willett a management buy-out, which he gladly took.
Following the management buy-out, the plan was put into action. It involved moving all Biddles’ equipment into one facility, reducing staff levels and investing £1.5m in equipment – including a Xerox DocuColor iGen3 and a Nipson Varypress 400 digital web press for monochrome printing at 120m per minute.
The company recognised that short-run batching throughout the production chain had become its specialism. Accordingly, Biddles invested in three pieces of bindery equipment – a Wohlenberg City-e 5000 perfect binder, a Kolbus BF 511 casing-in line and a Kolbus DA 260 casemaker – to handle runs of 100 to 5,000 copies.
Before this process began, Biddles had an £11m turnover, employed nearly 200 staff and 7,500m² of factory space on two sites. It now has an £8m turnover, 100 staff and one 3,300m² facility. “We were a very differently sized business that faced a host of difficult decisions,” says Willett.
Immediate interest
However, once these changes had been completed, business began to pick up. “Publisher’s Choice is so successful because there is no counter-argument to it,” claims Willett. “We got an immediate interest from publishers as it was cheaper. As they thought it through, they saw how it would start to influence the whole way they operate.”
Although Publisher’s Choice offers a logical and user-friendly approach, it still posed high risks that Willett had to consider. Biddles worked to overcome an initial resistance from publishers to a changing publishing plan and schedule. Another concern was that, in essence, Willett was asking his customers to reduce their print runs, which in turn affected Biddles’ turnover. “We clearly identified that in the early stages we were going to reduce our sales,” says Willett. “But in the longer term, the system allows our clients to publish more books and therefore facilitates more business for us.”
However, for Biddles one of the main issues was integrating its existing litho business with its new digital services. “It is difficult to draw digital and litho together,” says Willett. “By creating a change in the marketplace we were actually creating internal competition for our litho presses.”
Digital work now accounts for 70% of orders received; in terms of value, it accounts for 35%. However, the firm plans to increase this to 50% by next year, making Publisher’s Choice its most profitable business area.
And with the strength of the team helping to lead Publisher’s Choice forward Biddles is on course to hit its targets. The company has opted out of a management-heavy structure to allow employees at all levels to feel empowered to challenge decisions and get involved. “Book publishing is dominated by women. And if your female client is having to deal with print’s stereotypical 50-year-old pipe-smoker, it is an illustration of how printers don’t understand or can’t respond to their customers,” jokes Willett.
Team leaders
Two leading members of the Biddles’ team are customer services manager Jeannette Hurworth and marketing and online services manager Nicky Prentis, who created the Publisher’s Choice online ordering site, a pivotal feature of the system. Biddles wanted to ensure that by increasing the number of orders placed, publishers weren’t increasing administration. Prentis worked hard to create a hassle-free website that could fulfil all clients’ needs, including a function for logging and holding their entire printing back catalogue, allowing them to easily place orders in just a few minutes.
The site also encourages clients to place repeat orders. “It’s all about confidence,” says Willett. “Our online system becomes our clients’ production management tool, which in turn helps to build a relationship that is reliable.”
Lasting relationships
Publisher’s Choice has been a hit with smaller publishers in particular. Until now, this section of the sector has had little opportunity to work with a printer of Biddles’ status. “We are giving customers the opportunity to experiment, and they are now testing the market because the risk is greatly reduced,” says Jeannette Hurworth. The small publishers’ enthusiasm is echoed by Biddles, which continues to expand its market to encourage them to get on board. “You get more dialogue with these publishers, and we have been able to build some very strong and lasting relationships,” say Hurworth.
To ensure that publishers of all sizes feel welcome, Biddles is now forming Author’s Choice, a website dedicated to self-publishing. Prentis and Hurworth have also created Spectrum, which helps publishers create promotional material such as postcards, posters and bookmarks.
However, for now the firm is focusing on turning Publisher’s Choice into a brand, with particular focus on the environmental benefits of reducing waste through volume-specific printing.
“Who’s responsible for influencing future strategy?” asks Willett. “Should printers approach the publisher with a unique system? Can it even be assumed that the printer understands the challenges publishers have to cope with?” Fortunately, Biddles is not faced with this problem; after two years its profits are already on the rise as its clients’ cycles of reprinting begin.
INSPECTION LESSONS
Changing to short runs
Develop a set of facilities that will lock customers into the business, whether this is through an online ordering system or a library of printing history
Consider the lifecycle costs of a book rather than the individual costs associated with each run
Be prepared to restructure the organisation and the current investment to accommodate short-
run batching
Reduce administration time and costs associated with an order, as these eat into profitability
Don’t be afraid of internal competition between litho and digital presses, and instead work to integrate production
