Wallpaper print specialist john mark is doing rather well by providing an innovative service. So could any printer with large-format digital capability follow suit?
John Mark doubled its turnover to £1.4m in the 12
months leading up to this interview. Its commercial
director Jason Gilliat reckons that will be doubled
again this year, which is a good job because its
investment in print and associated solutions is not
insignificant. Since MD John Mark Watson set up
the Lancashire-based specialist wallpaper print business in 2012 it has spent around £1m on hardware
alone, predominantly on HP latex machines. It has also
had a bespoke cutter developed and built at a cost of
£180,000. Add to that the investment in getting an
AVA CadCam/HP partnership running to develop the
colour matching capability the company is so proud of.
But it’s not all about production kit, though digital
inkjet was the impetus for John Mark Watson to break
away from his family’s Surface Print Company where
he was MD “as being of the fourth generation to
manufacture wallpaper I knew a lot about wallpaper, but
not so much about digital print because what I’d done
was all analogue. I left in 2011 and started looking at
digital equipment, and at Sign and Digital in the summer
of 2012 I saw the HP LX600 and started playing with
one at ArtSystems, using files customers who had
followed me allowed me to use. By July 2012 John
Mark had a machine and become operational – with me
printing and just a Cad operator.”
The company decommissioned that first machine only
in April this year, the day before installing a HP L1500
and L570, bringing its kit spec up to four big HP latex
machines and three smaller ones. But John Mark is not
a printing company. Well, it is, but it’s not how either
Watson or Gilliat want it to be seen. The focus is very
much on it being a ‘wallpaper specialist’.
“Suppliers telling everyone with a wide-format printer
that they can do wallpaper is my bugbear,” says Watson.
“That does real damage in the market. PSPs believe
the machine sales guy telling them what the machine
can do and in this business it isn’t just about that to
be successful. It’s not just about the printing. A lot of it
is about the trimming and finishing and understanding
how spot on everything needs to be. We have customers
who charge £770 per drop for the wallpaper we produce
for them – so there’s zero tolerance from them when it
comes to mistakes.
“I’d say it takes a £500,000 investment to get into
wallpaper production – apart from the printers you
need to have the skills, right software, proper trimming
capability and proper wrapping/packing set-up.”
You also have to have a bit of vision and to be able to
hold your nerve when it comes to business development.
Both Watson and Gilliat understand that you need to be
able to play the long game when it comes to innovation,
the only way they believe to retain and attract the type of
customers it wants.
“We don’t do stickers for walls. We do high end
wallpapers and wall coverings and our customers include
the big five – Osborne and Little, Designers Guild, Cole
and Sons, Romo and Linwood – plus smaller boutique
designers,” stresses Watson. “Many want wallpapers to
match the fabrics they are doing, especially the smaller
guys. With digital print we can do that. But they also
want something different, so we have to keep innovating
and searching for new options.”
That is largely Gilliat’s remit. A graphic designer
by trade, he was brought into the business in March
2016 as business development manager because as
Watson explains: “I was doing the printing and not able to get out as much as I wanted”. Apart from
account handling, Gilliat’s role – both then and now as
commercial director – is product development, and to
find new clients.
“Not having a sales background helps,” he laughs.
“When it comes to talking to designers I’m on their
wavelength and talk their language. You are judged on
how you come across not just on what you deliver.”
That’s why the company rebranded not long after his
appointment “to modernise our image and attract
high end design studios.” It’s also why John Mark is
currently developing a customer suite “where clients
who are spending a lot of money with us can spend
time comfortably when they come to check what’s
coming off the printer.”
Crucially, John Mark is also constantly developing
new offerings. “We’re looking at patterns, colour,
substrates that won’t hit high street retail for years,”
says Watson, who is somewhat underwhelmed by
the approach of some substrate suppliers. “Make
no mistake, some suppliers are great and want us
to work with them as development guinea pigs if you
like – they’ll give us materials to try for free and if it
works we get a head start on using it commercially.
But some of the ‘new’ stuff some show us has been
around for years.”
Gilliat agrees: “We do have to push the envelope
and be constantly seeking out new options.” That’s
done online and on foot at shows both home and
abroad. “I’ve done lots of travel,” adds Gilliat,
pointing out that pay-back can be some way off.
“We work on new products, produce samples, walk
the walk at shows – like Heimtextil, Decorex, Deco
Off – where our types of customers congregate, make
the calls and do all the marketing but it can be a long
haul before business comes in, especially from new
customers,” says Gilliat, with Watson adding: “Some
designers can be pretty rude initially, but slowly and
surely you keep plugging away.”
“There’s one client that I’ve been plugging away
at since I got here. They told me they used a local
printer and would never use us. Now they do,”
demonstrates Gilliat. “Two years is not an unusual
timeframe to keep on at one contact.”
John Mark’s sights are now set on attracting more
big players and developing its customer-base beyond
the UK, in particular in Milan, Paris and New York.
“The small guys tend to come to us organically
now – they all go to the same shows and know of us
by word of mouth. More of the big boys are our focus.
Digital print does mean we can do the sampling and
shorter runs many of the smaller outfits want of
course, and from small acorns large oak trees grow,”
says Gilliat, adding: “and the small designer of today
may well become a ‘name’ of tomorrow that will bring
in bigger business so we certainly value them. But
the smaller bespoke jobs require lots of handholding
time, and the margin we make on them is not double
what we make on the bigger volume jobs.”
About 75% of John Mark’s turnover is from ‘volume’ jobs, which Watson defines as 100-200 rolls per month
per pattern. There’s a desire to see that type of work
grow. In terms of market development there’s a keen eye
being kept on ‘repeating murals’ – easy apply repeats for
high end domestic settings, as well as for single image
bespoke murals for the likes of galleries. The digitisation
and production of historic patterns are also proving a hit,
as are touchy-feely offerings. “We’ve done a ‘tapestry’
mural wallpaper where the feel echoes that,” explains
Gilliat.
So where would he and Watson like to see further
development? “Opaques and metallic would be nice,”
says Gilliat, “and faster machines!” adds Watson. “We
are printing high-end quality wallpapers here, but it’s
still slow. We realise there are people working on faster
machines, with players in the wallpaper analogue market
working with digital partners to produce high speed
machines that will cost £2-3m and be really high volume.
That’s not our market, but even for players like us, speed
will have to go up so roll price can come down.”
