Rapido Print Solutions, formerly Rapido Print, has taken on the B2C market by moving to a high street store, where it hopes it will be able to win a diverse mix of customers.
The 325sqm store opened on 2 August, and less than a week in, has led to Rapido winning 16 new accounts in the area.
Andrew Faulkner, Rapido’s owner and managing director, said the move to the high street was a natural one: “We believe there’s an opportunity to re-engage with the customers [in person.]
“We’re a UK-wide supplier, but we decided it might be time for us to re-introduce the print centre on the high street and reform it.”
The company came south to Daventry in no small part because the directors, who until that point had been commuting to Leeds, all lived nearby.
Faulkner said: “We came in and bought [Rapido] five years ago, ran it very successfully and happily in Leeds, but when the lease came up it was time to move.”
The firm has supported the move by investing in its technical capabilities.
Buying directly from Konica Minolta, Rapido has equipped the shop with a new AccurioPress C7100 cut-sheet toner printer-finisher.
It has likewise added a Canon imagePrograf Pro-4100 1.1m-wide digital printer and a Konica Minolta Bizhub 450i copier to its lineup, buying both from Milton Keynes-based supplier Control Print Solutions.
This upgrade has allowed Rapido to take a leap in terms of quality, according to Faulkner, as the firm had been running older Xerox Versant machines.
“From that to the Konica now, where we have the Accurio[Press] – the quality is so much better.
“Where we were probably outsourcing 40% of our work, we’re probably now outsourcing 15% of our work.”
Rapido likewise partnered with Konica to refresh its website, using the Flex4 web-to-print platform.
Faulkner said: “We had a bit of an old-fashioned grey and magenta looking thing that came with Rapido when we bought it five years ago.”
Part of the appeal of moving to the high street for Faulkner has been just how diverse the customer base walking through the door has been.
He said: “Last week we had the secretary of a UK motorcycle club, who just happens to live in the area, that has 9,000 members that need printing for.
“It really is a complete spectrum. You just don’t know who’s coming through the door.”
Now, after 22 years in operation, Rapido may soon be expanding in the new high street model, according to Faulkner.
“This will be the first Rapido site, but it certainly won’t be the last.”
