It was 12 years ago that Philip Dodd made a gut-instinct decision that, at the time, raised eyebrows within his business. Ipswich-based Healeys Print Group was a stationery printer based in the town centre. However, during a trip to Heidelberg's showroom to purchase a scanner, the group's managing director was moved to rethink his firm's approach.
"While I was there I saw a four-colour Speedmaster SM 52," he recalls. "I never used to visit printing trade exhibitions so I'd not seen one before. To Heidelberg's credit they did an on-the-spot demonstration there and then. The machine was able to print 1,000 leaflets in half an hour - something that took us three hours on our two-colour GTOs. From that moment, I decided to move the business to new premises and order that press. Back at the office, everyone looked at me and said I was mad."

After 18 months, those doubters had changed their tune. Healeys' turnover had doubled to £1m and it soon became one of the first companies in the region to adopt CTP. The next big step for the company was the move up to B2. "We did a bit of research on getting into that market. We didn't go on gut instinct."

That philosophy has served Dodd and his company well when it comes to investing in new technology. Healeys is now 30 years old and produces general commercial print work. Its turnover stands at £3m and there are plans to boost that figure over the next three to five years, as well as maintaining profitability. That last bit won't be easy.

"I have been in print for 40 years and the last two have been the toughest I know," says Dodd. "We want to get to £5m - we have everything we need to get to that figure."

Expanding line-up
Healeys now has three Heidelberg Speedmasters: the eight-colour SM 52, an Anicolor and a recently installed refurbished CD 74 - the press that's pushed the company into the B2 market. There's also a Xerox 400 for short-run work.
Alongside the investment in presses, Healeys has also moved finishing in-house; it has a raft of post-press kit from Horizon including the BQ470, a machine that's proved to be handy for perfect binding fine art print.

But one particular investment that's helped to drive the business to new heights is its management information system (MIS). It's an investment that helps to give a clear understanding of each job that goes through a business, boosts the speed of estimating and improves the company's relationships with customers. Healeys knew it needed an MIS, but deciding which one to choose was tricky.

"So many other printers have an MIS, but we weren't too sure where to start and what kind of product we needed for our business," explains Dodd. "I called BPIF Business and they came in to help us. It proved to be a good idea as they could identify what kind of system could offer us potential savings and benefits for the business."

Consultant Chris Springford assisted Healeys in the decision-making process. Dodd explains that Springford's broad knowledge of the industry and its various sectors came in handy when it was time for Healeys to specify what it needed. A shortlist of suppliers was drawn up and the winner was MIS supplier and developer Imprint Business Systems- a company Springford alerted Healeys to.

Implementation of the MIS was phased. "I didn't want to send the business into a shock by installing all these various modules in one go - areas like estimating, shopfloor data and production planning," says Dodd.

"We started with the estimating system and then moved to shopfloor data. It recently took on stock control and electronic production planning is going in at the moment."

Healeys and Imprint have struck up a solid working relationship. So much so that Healeys has become the beta test site for a range of new products from Imprint scheduled to be launched at Ipex. This includes a module that can automatically identify the most cost-effective press to run a particular job spec on.

The MIS has been a major investment for Healeys, but it's one that's paid off in spades as it's helping it to retain business.
"We now have every job detail on screen," says Dodd. "And for customers we can do an estimate in five minutes. That's very important - you need a system that can give them a price instantly. Every delay on a price to a customer is a disturbance to a working week and they get concerned - it suggests an indifferent attitude to them. Nothing drives a customer away faster than indifference."

With the MIS now firmly in place, the next step up for Healeys is to further develop its B2 offer. The Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74 was installed at the end of last year and, after a few teething problems, the press has settled in and churns out plenty of work. This means that Healeys doesn't have to farm out as much business as it did previously - indeed it now carries out trade work for other printers. It's been a B2 firm for three months and the five-colour press is likely to be a stepping stone - Dodd plans to buy a new press in 18 months' time to boost productivity as the company adopts 24-hour working.

Dodd could have made an initial huge investment, but was warned against it by Heidelberg UK managing director George Clarke. Clarke suggested that it would be wiser to buy a refurbished press allowing Healeys to dip its toe into the B2 water. It's a piece of advice that Dodd is grateful for.

"He told me to take a long-term view and showed an incredible amount of integrity," he adds. "George puts the benefits of the customer above the business and Heidelberg has been a partner that I respect. I am very enthusiastic about what I do and I need a bit of slowing down sometimes."

But that enthusiasm has filtered its way through his staff: around half of his workforce are prepared to give up one of their weekends and head off to next month's Ipex. They're keen to look at the latest technology and help identify the trends that may help move the business forward.

"The keenest are the youngsters here," adds Dodd. "They are still passionate about print and that's great - it gives me a lot of optimism. I work with incredible people."

The mix of people and technology has helped Healeys to expland into new markets and win new customers. The company has gained a solid reputation for quality and with its eye still firmly on the latest product developments, it hopes that it will continue to grow for several years to come. Healeys may have started out as a stationery printer, but there is no evidence that it is likely to be stationary any time soon.

COMMENT
Ipex will, as ever, offer visitors the opportunity to discover a host of new products and suppliers and to explore the latest innovations and emerging technologies. Many of these will offer tantalising possibilities for your company, heralding the prospect of fresh solutions to changing market needs that can add real value to your customers’ businesses.

But the choices available can be bewildering - more than 1,200 potential suppliers vying for your attention. At the BPIF we pride ourselves in helping companies make investment decisions in the context of a well thought-through business strategy and business model. Our role is to understand which applications are relevant to the client, both in relation to where they are now and where they plan to be in the future. Healeys was able to benefit from this advice when it chose to improve its facilities with a six-figure investment in new binding and finishing equipment.

A key task is to prepare kit and software specifications for potential suppliers. We can then join the client in discussions with suppliers and obtain competitive like-for-like quotations, reporting on any differences between equipment options, and providing a shortlist of preferred suppliers. We are not allied to any supplier and so can give impartial advice. We also advise on the best approaches to purchasing, including finance options, to help reduce the overall cost of the investment.

So make most of your trip to Ipex – after all, you won’t see as many alternative investment options for your business in one place at one time in this country for another four years. A careful evaluation of the alternatives, coupled with expert advice, will pay dividends.  

Andrew Brown is corporate affairs director at the BPIF

TOP TIPS: IMPLEMENTING AN MIS

Management information systems (MIS) and workflow are bound to be key topics at this year’s Ipex, so it is useful to look at a company that has already made the leap into the world of MIS. Healeys Print Group made that investment, around three years ago, after studying Vision in Print’s MIS report.

Healeys found that its existing system was not suitable for the business or the work that it was producing. Estimates took too long to produce and recorded customer data was difficult to access. Business reports from the system were also unsatisfactory.

The BPIF was approached for assistance in preparing a specification to put to tender. After an initial consultation and review of the existing operation, some searching questions were put to Healeys to ensure that the business requirement was fully understood.

Based on the results, three suppliers were shortlisted to present their proposals to meet the specification and to demonstrate their solutions. The choice of supplier was based on the most compliant solution technically and one that gave confidence in their ability to work in partnership with Healeys. Price was important, but the working relationship to develop with the company was key to the final selection, as major investments in new equipment were also planned.

The Vision in Print MIS study gave many pointers to maximise the use of the MIS that Healeys adopted. Perhaps the most important of these was to recalculate the cost rates to ensure that the MIS was working with the correct values from the outset.

Since the investment the benefits have been huge. For example, instant pricing, live scheduling, shop floor data collection, integrated stock management and real time system updates have all brought about best practice improvements at Healeys.

Chris Springford is associate consultant for BPIF Business