Founder Mike Ormond tells how this Welsh company has had to retrench in difficult trading conditions and how investment in flatbed technology is helping it survive.
Sometimes you just have to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. That’s what Mike Ormond is doing. The founder and director of Llandudno-based MicroGraphics Colour Imaging is the first to admit that it’s been a tough few years with tightening margins and a turnover that’s slid from over £500,000 in 2009 to more like £420,000. It’s meant retrenching, with a reduction in staff over the last 12 months and a requirement for him to get back to being more involved in production.
“Because of where we are, what we do and the types of customer we have it has been difficult. In 2009 things fell off with a big bump and we’ve had to work hard. Thankfully, this year we’re seeing things perk up,” says Ormond, who points out that if it hadn’t been for investment in an Arizona 350GT flatbed printer in 2009, oddly enough the same year the company saw its first order fall off, then MicroGraphics would not have made it through thus far. “That machine changed everything. If we hadn’t bought it we wouldn’t be here now,” he says quite openly.
It’s not that MicroGraphics has lacked investment; over the years Ormond has regularly and continually bought new production kit. Having been set up in 1989 as a one-man DTP business in a rented attic, the company relocated to Colwyn Bay and entered the wide-format digital print fray in 1995 with an Encad Novajet 2 (with Postscript Rip) and laminator, and ever since has ploughed money into updating and expanding its plant. Straddling Micrographics’ move to its current Llandudno freehold factory site in 1999 was a stream of Novajets throughout the late Nineties/early Noughties, followed by Mimaki JV3, Seiko ColourPainter S64 and Canon IPF8000s/9000s wide-format printers before the arrival of the flatbed Oce Arizona.
“70% of our turnover is now wide-format print and the bulk of it goes through the Arizona,” says Ormond, pointing out that the company currently also runs a Mimaki JV33-160 (it too bought in 2009 and now doing mainly self-adhesive work) and two Canon IPF printers (which handle mostly pop-up/exhibition work).
“Our print to board was really falling off before we bought the Arizona but now it’s going up again, which is great because it’s where we are managing to make a bit more margin,” Ormond explains. “Of course what’s really helping us too is the fact that we now also have a 3 x 2m cutter/router that we can use on the print coming off that flatbed. Together they are really making a difference.”
The finishing table is a German manufactured VHF Active Pro bought by Ormond last year after he’d scoured the market for something at the right price. “I’ve always invested where I’ve thought it necessary since getting the 36in Novajet in ‘95 and telling people we could produce wide-format print. We bought solvent machines to get into the outdoor market and after that the Canon machines to improve productivity etc. When we got the Arizona flatbed, which was partly grant funded, we knew we needed a flatbed cutter to maximize what we could do with it.
“We couldn’t afford something like a Zund but at Fespa Munich we saw the VHF people and afterwards went to their facility outside Stuttgart and saw the ActivePro which is still a very fast and flexible machine, with routing head, that comes fully loaded at half the price of the Zund. They don’t have a UK agent so we deal with tem direct but the machine has a two year warranty and remote diagnostics so if we have a problem we just ring them, they send parts if needed and I fix it because the machine is very accessible. It’s a solution that’s proving cost effective and important in terms of the work we’re getting.”
Of MicroGraphics’ wide-format turnover around a third is from pop-ups/exhibition work, a third vandal resistant outside signage for the likes of nature reserves (specially finished by another company), and a third flat panel Dibond type work. Ormond describes the company as “a mid-range printer that sells on quality rather than price,” and explains: “The bulk of our work comes from within Wales and is smaller-run type work. Over the last three years in particular we’ve seen a downward pressure on prices, lost customers that have been bought-out or disappeared and suffered because we do a lot of work for the public sector and they’ve not been spending much. Diversification into new markets is difficult so we are trying to keep to the higher margin stuff that the Arizona and VHF cutter enable us to do.”
He adds: “Being in a location like this reputation really matters, and we’ve built up a good name because we really do offer a very high level of customer service. I and a colleague handle client liaison and we’re all about understanding what the customer needs, not just what they ask for. Of course that allows us to try and upsell, but it also means people are invested with us.
“We don’t do as much marketing as we should, but what we do do is get as many people as we can to come on site and look at what we can actually do for them. Where we are located is not he most technically sophisticated area so if we can get customers to come and see what we can do with the flatbed they tend to be gobsmacked! It’s better to show them than tell them – they want proof. For instance we showed someone from the local slate museum how we could print signage onto slate, and did a 3D reboard graphic for another that just didn’t know it could be done. We need to educate the customers and we find this is the best way to do it. It’s a something we need to keep on top of.”
So what does Ormond think about the company’s future? He’s bullish, and hints that a buyout approach wouldn’t be unwelcome, saying: “We have retrenched and now we’re concentrating on more bespoke wide-format and actively getting away from the non-profitable stuff – such as the walk-in market and amateur artists. We are more picky now and know the kind of customers we want – there just aren’t many of them in North Wales! For companies of our size we have to try and be inventive but within the restrictions of what we can afford to do. I really believe that with the right kit in place, customer service is key, with a focus on advising and educating clients so that you can provide what they don’t even know can be produced.”
