Custom Gateway signs up to PrintWeekLive!

Cloud-based software platform provider Custom Gateway has taken a stand at the inaugural PrintWeekLive! show in March.

The UK-headquartered company will use the show, which takes place on 8 and 9 March at the Wasps Arena in Coventry, to promote its platform across the print industry.

Custom Gateway, formerly Gateway 3D, is a cloud-based W2P software platform for retailers, printers and e-commerce traders, which the firm's Ian Bell describes as a digital content database and fulfilment service network that provides an end-to-end solution for personalised and print-on-demand products for a huge range of customers. 

"It’s a low-cost, monthly subscription-based model that allows print brokers, promotional product distributers and suppliers and printers to all connect through one platform. We have customers around the world and it allows them to get their products from the most relevant fulfilment centre in the network," said Bell, whose job title within the business is 'explainer'.

Custom Gateway is a global operation with bases in Germany, the US and Slovakia as well as the UK. The platform works through web storefronts and in-store kiosks, while resellers can also use it to order print-on-demand personalised products from the supplier network.

Until recently most of the company's UK work has been with high-street retailers but Bell said the firm was starting to move into general print and was keen "to push that market further".

"We want to speak to print companies and print brokers," he said. "We can see massive potential. We have around 100 suppliers within our network who can supply printed products and receive orders through our platform.

“We want to expand the supplier network so the retailers can add their products to the system so orders for their products are automatically routed through to the suppliers. We are just the connection between the suppliers and the retailers and the bigger the supply network the bigger the offering of products is." 

Bell said signing up for a stand at PrintWeekLive! was an important way of getting the Custom Gateway message out. "We are looking for long term connections that are quality businesses that we can start working with," he said.

Bell added: "It's a new show so I suppose it's a punt but we assume the show will be of the same quality we’d expect from the magazine. I’ve been in the print industry for about 20 years and I know PrintWeek as the leading publication for the industry, people take it seriously so I trust its reputation.