With literally thousands of different titles to choose from, the store buyer’s selection process is as much commodity- as creative-based – and there’s no doubt that a well-produced advance proof can have a positive impact on orders for the final version.
Derby-based commercial printer Colourstream Litho has used this premise to open up an expanding niche business in digitally printed, full-colour blads, which are literally knocking spots off most of the mock-ups presented by its competitors.
“We started targeting the book trade four years ago,” says sales and marketing director David Corthorn. “We don’t position ourselves as a large-run book printer, but as a provider of short-run advance copies that publishers’ sales teams use to promote from. So, instead of going out with a few sheets of A4 paper saying it will look like this, they can say: ‘Here’s the finished book’. People can touch and feel it, and see exactly what it’s going to be like on the shelf.
“We’re just producing a saddlestitched digitally printed children’s book proof for which the bulk run of 10,000-20,000 will be litho printed in China. There is no way we can compete with that, of course, but what we can deliver is a 48-pager, of which the first 24pp are in English. You then turn it round, and the 24pp at the other end are in Spanish. We’ll be producing 25 copies of each for their sales force. That’s a very nice digital order, and was new business for us.”
A growing band of book publishers, such as Phaidon and the Book Trust, are knocking on Colourstream’s door thanks to the offset quality of the print its HP Indigo 5500 produces. Not only is around 20% of its £3.4m annual turnover generated by the digital press running two shifts per day, five days a week, but it’s also helping to increase the printer’s core B2B business as well.
Prior to installing its original Indigo 1000 in 2002 – subsequently upgraded to the 3050 and now the 5500 – Colourstream primarily serviced general commercial requirements through locally based design agencies. Corthorn joined in 2003 from the ex-Boots in-house company, where he’d started as an apprentice bookbinder 28 years earlier, and where part of his brief was to look at diaries and calendars. Taking stand-space at the London Book Fair looked like the right conduit to lead Colourstream into new business.
They’ve stuck with it ever since, says Corthorn. “Having a continued presence there has been important; we’re not seen as someone that turned up once or twice on the off chance. We’re serious about what we’re doing in that market, and people are beginning to realise that we’re there for the long-haul.
“We came away from this year’s show with another 70 good leads. Some of that is for proofs, and one is for technical books of around 2,000-3,000-off runs. Each project is anything between 96pp and 280pp in full colour, which would be quite nice work for our litho presses. But the other thing that is working for us really well is that because we are B2B printers we can obviously talk about their commercial literature too. It’s a major door-opener.”
Colourstream at a glance
Sectors B2B, book publishing
USP Premium-quality pre-publication ‘blads’
Turnover £3.4m
Staff 30
Location Derby
Clients In addition to book publishers, Rolls-Royce, Denby Pottery and the England and Wales Cricket Board
Kit HP Indigo 5500, two B2 10-colour Heidelberg presses, Autobond Perfector laminator, Heidelberg Prosetter 435 via Stahl folders, Horizon StitchLiner
Accreditations FSC and PEFC certified. ISO 90001 to be upgraded to 14001 in August
