Established in three French departments (Savoie, Isère and Ain) with five sites, Quick PRINT was taken over by Jacky Gerard, the new Manager of Quick PRINT, in June 2014 and has around twenty employees. The company, founded 80 years ago, is active in the three main sectors of digital printing: reprography, printing and imaging.
After a career of more than 35 years as manager in a variety of fields, Jacky Gerard joined the world of digital printing with a fresh eye and a different way of seeing how the Quick PRINT business model could evolve. He was very interested in Quick PRINT´s concept of horizontal positioning as this enables the company to develop a more wide-ranging service offer. Jacky Gerard is determined to evolve this business by expanding from a state of purpose, i.e. printing an image on a document, to a state of means, namely offering customers something beyond just printing by way of the printed image.
The facilities at Quick PRINT consisted of previous-generation equipment with insufficient technical capabilities. The printing business was thus not able to meet customers' expectations and even less able to move towards its new positioning. Jacky Gerard had to implement a significant investment policy in both the printing and imaging sectors.
After meeting different market players, Jacky Gerard chose for his printing equipment the latest digital press by Konica Minolta, the bizhub PRESS C1100, and the new JETVARNISH 3DS, developed by MGI for Konica Minolta.
In addition to the acknowledged performance of the bizhub PRESS C1100, Quick PRINT wanted to raise the level of excellence by refining its printing with the JETVARNISH 3DS. This shows Quick PRINT's motivation to add value to its services to customers and is also an appropriate means to generate the growth that Jacky Gerard wants to achieve with the new investment.
The main asset that Jacky Gerard sees particularly in the JETVARNISH 3DS is that it enables Quick PRINT to incorporate creativity into its business and thus better assist customers by becoming a source of ideas and not just a provider of technical services.
“What helped me decide to start a partnership with Konica Minolta /MGI – in addition to the corporate values conveyed by the people I met along my decision-making path and in whom I could see something of myself – was the Group's sales policy and industrial strategy. I found a clear association between the solutions put forward and the issues I was facing to change our business model,” explains Jacky Gerard, Manager of Quick PRINT.
When the only competitive argument on the table is price, I find you inevitably slip towards impoverishment of the company and strengthen its precariousness. An economic model, which rests only on the policy of the lowest price, is only viable if this low price is offset by very high print volumes, which seems to be a contradiction of the very essence of digital printing. This is why I decided to move Quick PRINT towards the development of high added value products by offering our customers original, differentiating and customized communication media, while making production gains and maintaining printing quality.”
“With this exclusive technology, we will be able to offer our customers communication media, which incorporate a “third dimension” – that of enhancing their products or their own visual identity in a unique or customized way in relation to the defined marketing targets. Our investment gives us an amazing advantage of competitive differentiation in a market, which gradually discovers the assets of 3D coating technology for digital printing.”
“With this exclusive technology, we will be able to offer our customers communication media, which incorporate a ‘third dimension”
Cutting costs and offering competitive pricing is entirely laudable, of course.. A business model based on a policy of driving down prices alone can only really be viable if it is offset by very high print volumes – often not an option for smaller companies using digital printing. Factoring in all these points, Jacky Gerard repositioned Quick PRINT in such a way that it was able to offer its customers high added-value products with original, differentiating and customisedcommunications media, whilst at the same time increasing production volumes and maintaining printing quality.
Looking to the future, Quick PRINT wanted to incorporate creativity into its business, enabling the company to become not just a provider of technical services but also a source of highly usable, saleable ideas and advice to evolve its role and justify raising prices. MGI technology is now letting the French print provider do just that, differentiating the company's products and services and opening doors to new customer groups and potential markets. The MGI technology also lets Quick PRINT offer its customers communications media incorporating a 'third dimension' – enhancing their products or visual identity – in a unique or customised way in relation to defined marketing targets. The investment has helped Quick PRINT gain key competitive advantage in an industry rapidly discovering how 3D coating technology is reshaping digital printing as a whole.
Does Jacky Gerard's experience remind you of your own? If you think MGI digital varnishing technology could bring a fresh approach and future to your print services provider, then don't hesitate to contact one of our specialists.