THE labels that identify some of Western Australia’s best-known products and brands roll off the printing press at Balcatta’s Supa Stik, a third-generation family business started in the 1960s.
Supa Stik founder Bill Holywell was among the first to bring sticky labels to Australia after he went on a research trip to the US and discovered the technology.
That was a formative time for printing in WA; Bill was travelling with friend Stan Watt, who brought instant printing back to WA and rapidly developed his family business, Snap Printing.
More than four decades later, Supa Stik has seven printing presses and is about to retire three of them to make way for its newest investment – the next generation digital press from, of all places, Israel.
Supa Stik chief executive Peter Holywell said that, given the mature nature of the market, the business had been conscious of investing heavily in technology to ensure a competitive advantage.
Supa Stik pioneered digital label printing in WA and the latest machine – the newest version of an HP Indigo – is the first of its kind in Australia.
“It does what we are doing but it does it bigger, better and with less waste and more in-built control on consistency,” Mr Holywell told WA Business News.
“It moves us well ahead of where we are and well ahead in general in WA.”
The new machine will also change the business’s workflow; it has been calibrated for a one-pass operation, whereas older equipment required a row of material to be handled three times.
“We are taking two steps out of the process and that is where the capacity growth comes from,” Mr Holywell said.
“The modelling we have done for new workflows is really innovative. There is only one other site globally that had the workflow we are proposing.
“With the workflow we are putting in and the equipment, we are in a really good position to go to the next stage for our business.”
Mr Holywell acknowledges the risks associated with such a significant investment in new machinery but is confident Supa Stik will continue to grow.
“I guess anytime you are investing you are committing to a significant outlay every month, so once you have committed there isn’t the option to wind the business back if the prevailing conditions suggest that is what you need to do,” he said.
“For us, the biggest risk is the business is not performing, but we are confident around that.”
Half of Supa Stik’s work comes from wine industry, with brands such as Madfish, Stella Bella and Larry Cherubino on its books. Its other key markets are pharmaceuticals – where its largest single client comes from – and food, including work for Anchor Foods and Fini olive oil.
“Wine and pharmaceuticals sound like they are polar opposite, but they’re not,” Mr Holywell said.
“If you look at what’s important for both it is brand execution for wine and brand execution for pharmaceuticals, and data integrity. While the reasons for those things to be important are different across industries, the requirements are hand in glove.
“Our client expectations continue to grow and this technology enables us to be just ahead of where our expectations are.”
Mr Holywell took charge of the company three years ago, with his father, Bill Holywell, now a director focused on professional development as a growth mechanism for the business; to that end he engaged a training organisation to run a continuous improvement course on a weekly basis.
Each of the business’ 36 staff has been involved in the program, most completing a certificate III in manufacturing; certificate four is the next goal, which will take the business through another three years of training.
As a member of leadership mentor group The Executive Connection, Mr Holywell said he was personally committed to learning and understood its value for the business.
“One of the key things that comes out of TEC is about people, providing people with the opportunity to learn, to be engaged in what you are doing,” he said.
“The more you do that, the more you have a team of people driving business results.”
