Hatch was registered as a business at the end of March but has spent the past few months readying itself for its commercial launch, which took place last week when the firm's online print-on-demand service – built using Infigo Software’s Catfish web-to-print platform – went live.
“I’ve got a lot of friends who own design agencies and design recruitment agencies and they hate print salespeople who offer the world but give nothing in return,” said Hatch founder Gary Toomey, who has spent his whole career working in the industry and has previous web-to-print experience.
“So I thought that instead of salespeople at the back end, we’d have customer service people who know what they’re talking about and who have the experience to say ‘yes we can do that’ or ‘no we can’t do that’.
“We want to give customers the opportunity to go straight to the product they want, at a set price, rather than them having to negotiate deals and work around prices.”
He added: “There’s a lot of work still to do on the site and a lot of things to go on it yet but we are taking orders. We’ve been really happy with what we’ve seen so far – social media has been really great, we’ve had loads of sample packs go out the door and we’ve had quite a few orders already as well.”
Hatch shares three common directors with parent company Fontain, based at the same site in south London, although Toomey – who holds no other directorships – oversees the day-to-day running of Hatch.
Hatch was funded via personal investment by Toomey and the other directors. The firm currently has six dedicated staff and is targeting sales of £500,000 in its first year of trading.
The software behind Hatch's website enables customers to upload their own artwork, create something from scratch in the online design tool, or choose from an array of templated designs.
The firm's product range includes high quality business cards, flyers, folded leaflets, roller banners, greetings cards, posters, and brochures. All of its products are vegan, ethically sourced and FSC accredited and the business has access to Fontain’s machinery – which includes an HP Indigo – for print production.
Hatch has also teamed up with express courier company Gophr to offer fast delivery. It said it can guarantee same-day delivery to customers that want it and in some cases can deliver within the hour to local clients.
“There is lots of competition out there in the print-on-demand sector so I knew I needed to set Hatch apart with a cutting-edge user experience and an outstanding service that will have customers returning again and again,” said Toomey.
“Where some might see products like business cards and roller banners as functional, I see them as the window to your brand essence and an opportunity to make an awe-inspiring first impression. So I wanted to create a business that makes ordering business stationery as exciting as that vision.”
He added: “The brand is designed to appeal to the bold, entrepreneurs, risk takers and visionaries who want their business to stand out from the rest in beautiful and creative ways.
“But above all, we’ve kept everything simple – from the usability of the website right through to the super-fast delivery service – so the busy business minds we’re appealing to have more time to focus on running their business.”
