WORLDWIDE Online Printing has had a turbulent past few years, with changes in ownership, a dip into administration, and consequent company restructure.
Added to that are the competitive and challenging current market conditions amid shrinking demand for print services.
Despite the challenges, however, those heading the restructured business claim it’s on track to achieve 25 per cent growth in the coming financial year – helped along by a widening of service offerings and a new dedication to environmentally friendly operations.
By mid-October the company expects to have the manufacturing side of the business and all of its 52 franchise centres accredited as carbon neutral suppliers, which Worldwide managing director Rob Dallimore said could bring in more custom.
“It could be the difference between us winning and losing contracts,” Mr Dallimore told WA Business News.
“If a customer has the choice of two relatively equal contracts but we’re carbon neutral, then that’s in our favour.”
The company is also exploring how it can expand its services beyond its core print products to instead offer ‘end-to-end solutions’.
According to Mr Dallimore, the biggest component in any future success was the company’s culture, which he said had changed significantly since the days when private equity group Navis Capital held ownership.
Three years ago, Navis was in the driver’s seat, with Cannington-based Crystal Printing Services looking after the manufacturing hub in Perth.
Four years after Navis invested in Worldwide, the company went into administration, in February 2010.
At the time, the number of franchise centres had fallen from 76 to 68, and two of the three production hubs had been shut down.
Crystal ended up buying the franchising network side of the business and the associated Worldwide Online Printing brand – effectively taking control of the two sides of the business.
Mr Dallimore said the resulting change had led to a renewed focus on franchisees, rather than Navis’s focus on quantities and figures.
“From a franchisor point of view the focus went from manufacturing to focusing on the franchisees, which is what it’s all about,” he said.
“It’s been about restoring the franchisees’ faith and the confidence; you can imagine they’d been on a bit of a roller coaster ride and then these new owners come along.”
Under Crystal’s ownership the company undertook a consolidation of franchise centres, reducing the number further from 68 to 52 nationally.
That outcome was better than Crystal’s worst-case scenario, however, which modelled only 38 franchisees remaining.
While both sides of the business come under Crystal’s ownership, Worldwide franchisees have no obligation to buy their print services from Crystal’s Perth hub.
Despite this freedom of choice, all of Worldwide’s franchisees send their orders to the Perth hub, with about 65 per cent coming from states outside Western Australia.
It’s an arrangement Crystal managing director Arnold Whiteside said forced the manufacturing side to produce the best products possible.
“Our arrangement is that we provide services exclusively to Worldwide franchisees – no other company,” he said.
‘‘But if they can get it done better and cheaper from another printer then we can’t stop them.”
Mr Whiteside suggested having the majority of its business come from outside WA actually backed up the company’s green focus, because flying products from Perth to Sydney was much more carbon efficient than setting up a hub on the eastern seaboard.
