Tricks of the Trade
The reality of the situation for modern-day print companies is the need to diversify their offering if they are to continue to succeed and grow. Such is the amount of competition they face, they need to be doing something different or be in a position to meet the changing requirements of their customers.
Not all print companies are in a position to invest in new equipment to expand their service offering, but there is another option – form a partnership with a trade printer. Solely focused on trade work, these businesses have a whole arsenal of print machinery at their disposal and are able to turn around all manner of jobs quickly and efficiently.
Here, Print Monthly speaks with some of the stand-out names in the UK trade print sector and finds out more about the advantages partnering with these companies offer to printing businesses.
A Dependable Print Partner
Among those in this sector is the aptly named Tradeprint. Established in 1997, Tradeprint is part of The Cimpress Group and has grown into a full-service web-to-print enterprise, acting as a print partner for thousands of businesses.
Tradeprint operates as part of The Cimpress Group
Anthony Rowell, sales and customer success director, and sustainability lead, comments: “We continuously monitor the market to make sure our materials and products remain competitive. This helps us offer low prices with fast delivery times to our customers, so they’re getting the best deal.
“Being part of a strong network lets us provide a wide variety of products, allowing our customers to find everything they need in one place. It’s all about giving you great prices and convenience.
Being part of a strong network lets us provide a wide variety of products, allowing our customers to find everything they need in one place. It’s all about giving you great prices and convenience”
“Being a trade printer, we know how important it is to offer services tailored to the trade market. For instance, our Tradeprint PRO reward scheme has been thoughtfully designed with our trade customers in mind. It rewards them with monthly credits based on their spending in the previous month. In a nutshell, the more you spend, the more you save.”
As to why companies should consider partnering with Tradeprint, Rowell says this can help grow your business and offers companies the support and confidence required during periods of expansion.
“Scalability is a critical aspect for many businesses, and we have designed our products and services with this principle in mind,” Rowell says, adding: “We take pride in offering a robust API integration, a feature only available from a company deeply ingrained in technology. This allows customers to reduce expensive set-up costs, benefit from our manufacturing capabilities whilst helping them to reinvest and grow.”
Rowell also talks up Tradeprint’s infrastructure and the network of print fulfillers across the UK, saying that this enables the company to provide businesses with the flexibility they need to continue with their expansion plans.
“Trade printing will always have relevance in modern-day marketing and business growth, and finding a dependable print partner that offers high-quality print, amazing customer service, a wide product category, and the latest in print technology, all within a single identity can be challenging,” Rowell says.
“Being able to outsource your print to a professional partner by way of a seamless transaction, allows them to redirect their focus, time, energy, and resources towards their core business activities.”
Route To Success
Another name synonymous with the UK trade print market is Route 1 Print, which, based in South Yorkshire, operates as an online trade printer and works exclusively with a wide range of print resellers. The company recently exhibited at The Print Show 2023, just along from Tradeprint, and drew plenty of interest from the passing crowds.
“We like to consider ourselves as our customers' silent print partner by providing them not only with an extensive range of high-quality print products but also by supporting their business as much as possible,” Route 1 Print marketing lead Macauley Hardeman comments, adding: “Whether that is through our dedicated account managers or providing them with a range of free resources to save them time, we are always here for them.”
So, what benefits are there to working with Route 1 Print? Hardeman says that there are many advantages to using a trade printer including full access to the company’s state-of-the-art technology. Hardeman explains that the company invests in all areas to offer the best products it can to its customers.
“This allows us to offer competitive pricing and fast turnarounds so the print reseller can make a healthy margin whilst ensuring they meet their customers’ needs,” Hardeman explains.
He continues: “Finally, we have a wide team of print professionals available to help, whether that is a member of our studio team conducting a free 30-point artwork check or an account manager helping you to find the right solution for a bespoke project.
“If your business is thriving then that means ours is, so it’s in our best interest to support you as much as we can. Our model allows customers to diversify and access markets they previously wouldn’t have been able to without significant investment in premises, machinery, and staffing.”
Hardeman goes on to say that Route 1 Print fully understands and respects the challenges that companies are having with the current economic climate and how these are impacting, and indeed changing, the way some businesses operate. He explains that partnering with a trade print company like Route 1 Print will help customers get through the tough times and come out the other side stronger with a new fruitful partnership.
“We have had plenty of fantastic success stories from supporting businesses to transition to a trade-printer-supported model,”
Hardeman says, adding: “We also regularly check in and try to get to know our clients’ business so we can tailor support to them and we’re constantly updating our reseller tools to ensure we have a range of useful free resources our client can use to save time and spend it where it matters, with their customers.”
With this, Hardeman adds that Route 1 Print is in constant contact with its customers to find out how it can improve and enhance its offering. He explains that this forms a key part of its future planning strategy and by listening to the customer, the company can respond better to their requirements and demands.
“We’d like to just say thank you to our valued partners for their continued support, and that we always welcome feedback on areas we can develop to support them further, so please do get in touch with us and let us understand how we can more closely work together,” Hardeman says.
A Full Service
Outside of the traditional print market and Very Displays offers a range of portable display products. Among its portfolio is solutions for exhibition and events, retail and point of sale, fabric, and outdoor options.
O Factoid: Very Displays breaks down its business into four key categories: exhibition and events, retail and POS, fabric solutions, and outdoor options O
“We can supply our trade customers with the total package, cost-effective display hardware, and high-quality printed graphics if required,” explains Very Displays marketing manager Kirsty Corcoran, who adds: “We specialise in fabric printing and in the last year have heavily invested in industrial kit, including two new dye-sublimation 3.2m printers and an automated cutter. We also have UV printing capabilities at our large print facility.
Very Displays describes tube fabric display backwalls and flags as its print bread and butter
“We know what we’re good at and we stick to that, so our customers can lean on our years of expertise to provide their customers with a much wider variety of products without having to invest themselves.
“Tube fabric display backwalls and flags are our print bread and butter, and with our industrial equipment and experienced finishers, why not save time, energy, and money and use us as another arm to your business. We also have a large stock holding of display hardware which means customers don’t have to tie up funds and use precious warehouse space to store a wide range of large-format products.”
Aside from the product itself, Corcoran says Very can support its customers with marketing and sales initiatives. Very provides unbranded product imagery for websites and digital comms, unbranded selling brochures that can be overbranded with customer logos, hands-on product training at its showroom, and even unbranded e-shot templates.
Very Displays supports customers across a number of key markets including retail and point of sale
Corcoran describes this as an extra, free service it provides to help its trade customers to sell the product and in turn expand and grow in the large-format print sector.
“By supplying the full service to our trade customers, we expand their capabilities, allowing them to say yes to all their customers’ needs and requests,” Corcoran says, adding: “This is further supported with our competitive trade pricing allowing healthy margins for our customers.
“The main advantages of working with a trusted trade printer and supplier such as Very Displays is quite simply the ease and the extra routes to market that become available.”
Plenty Of Choice
This is just a selection of trade print companies active in the UK, with the industry having an excellent choice of expert companies to work with.
To highlight just some of the other trade print businesses that stand out in the market, one of these is Marqetspace, an online trade printer that works exclusively with design and print companies. Operating as part of the UK-based Grafenia group, it has been providing print solutions to graphics professionals since 2001.
Then there is Flexpress, which itself says that in a buyer’s market, print companies are spoilt for choice when it comes to trade printers, but finding just one company to fit all their needs, competitively, is a challenge.
And of course, we can’t write about trade printers without a mention of Solopress’ Solopro trade print offering. This service provides a tailored service for printers’ needs. By becoming a Solopro member, users that spend over £20,000 a year on print have access to a dedicated account manager and the service is then built around specific requirements.
As such, those companies looking to work with a trade printer should do their research to ensure that their potential new partner will deliver exactly what they and their own customers want.
Whether it is moving into a new market to access increasing opportunities, or responding to the demands of customers, print companies can achieve all this and more – all without having to break the bank – by partnering up with a trade print business. After all, what is it that they say about strength in numbers – or that two heads are better than one?
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