But if all it takes those European clients is to brush in a few keystrokes to order print, executing and delivering that order is far from simple. “It took us three months to get our first order, which was slightly worrying” recalls director Scott. “But we had confidence in what we were doing.”

The challenge

And this is what they did: the team based in Solihull, West Midlands was keen to target high-profile companies in sport, industry, recruitment and automotive sectors, typically with multiple offices across Europe and the UK, and each one with an attractive turnover.

Mauve Print Management has built a strong reputation in its short life supplying these kind of sectors in Britain. It sources print for local football clubs and earlier in the year provided full design and print services, which included roadside banners, to various international sporting events including the ITU World Triathlon in Hyde Park, London this May.

But Scott and Neild had noticed a certain type of company was riper than most for a web-to-print approach with a difference. Businesses with multiple offices across a wide geographic spread were having problems controlling the consistency of their brand image, a problem made worse by sourcing printed material from multiple suppliers, sometimes from more than one country.

“We wanted a web-to-print system that would not only offer a centralised online, custom-branded portal that would make it easy for these companies to manage their print collateral at any time and from anywhere in the world,” says Scott.

“It had to offer more than just the usual web-to-print benefits of giving the client the power to centralise and disperse marketing materials efficiently while controlling branding, quality and costs to the nth degree. We found a lot of web-to-print services were fine at producing the work.

“But few offered really detailed reports, which we resolved by running parallel to our print management system. This enabled us to chisel right down to the finest detail to offer a total breakdown, not just from country to country but down to any office or department in any country – literally any customised report required by the client.

“For people dealing with marketing spend or procurement, this information is priceless. You would have thought most suppliers did this, but they don’t do it to the detail we were aiming for. We wanted to help our clients squirrel into every nook and cranny of their print data to give them a fuller picture and help them squeeze out more efficiencies.”

The method

One such client, for example, operates out of 80 locations in eight countries and is very specific on its brand and communications. Historically the company had issues with suppliers mismatching layouts or using out-of-date logos and colour schemes on printed material.

Mauve Print Management bought web-to-print software that enables international clients to view in their local language, driven by an IP address. The package, he says, is easy to implement and user friendly. As well as drilling down to details at office level, the team made the service competitive by introducing “cut-off points”.

Scott explains: “For high turnaround jobs we have a weekly cut-off point – a weekly deadline for a print order –resulting in one weekly dispatch. We collate the order and within five days of that cut-off time, the print lands on your desk, giving exact certainty to delivery times.”

All material is printed in the UK: Mauve Print Management has a roster of six approved suppliers that can be called upon depending on the requirement and the finer project detail. These include B1, B2, digital, continuous and envelope businesses.

“Our suppliers are of equal importance as our client base – this close relationship with our supply chain allows us to respond to any given circumstance or request received from our clients. Treating everyone we work with on an equal basis is one of our key principles.”

Scott insists the learning curve has not been too steep, but one area brought him up sharp: shipping and dispatch costs were areas that required attention. By managing the supply chain to produce goods quickly Mauve was able to offer clients savings based on group dispatches using a road network as opposed to air freight for weighty loads to trim costs and help margins.

An example of how nuanced the service has become comes via a customer in France, which includes five staff on the sixth floor of an office block. Delivery by road meant staff had to lug 30kg boxes up six flights of steps as that particular delivery service was only obliged to deliver to the ground floor.

However, using air involved boxes being delivered to the desk by the courier as this service level states. That, he insists, is the detail his account managers can tap into to ensure the journey from order to delivery is seamless from the customer perspective.

The result

Mauve Print Management has been running its web-to-print facility for clients in Spain, Italy, France and Germany for just over two years, using the DHL courier company. To date the service accounts for about third of business, which racks up a turnover of just over £1m.

Scott’s team has produced marketing case studies and YouTube videos on the benefits of web-to-print and is honing its targeting of overseas companies. This “gives us a better shot when we go in search of new business, and we are actively doing this all the time”.

Those case studies make a convincing argument. One company was refining its brand and needed more than 2 million items including brochures, stationery and marketing collateral dispatched over three days. Of the 300 dispatches, only two threw up problems and these were driver- not service-related issues, says a proud Scott.

However, he believes in taking it “slowly slowly” and has no plans for rapid expansion: “It’s important we grow at a rate that always allows us to maintain service standards. Recruitment and training the correct person to the standard we require takes time. We have two further positions to fill over the next 12 months to help spread the work load from recent account wins. 

“If we could add 15% on last year’s turnover we will be in a good spot to push forward in 2016. The software cost about £50,000 and we spend between £2,000 to £3,000 a month on tweaks and on-going costs. But apart from premises and computers and the experienced and creative heads in our team, that’s pretty much all of our overheads. The beauty of the model is there is very little risk. 

“Ultimately we don’t run machinery: our overheads are low, as are the risks, allowing us to be competitive and flexible because of our unlimited capacity. Meanwhile the quality of detail we can offer on each order hopefully makes us stand out in a congested market.”

Scott insists there have never been problems with language barriers while barriers of another kind, fortunately, have failed to hit the company: deliveries to mainland Europe have not been affected by any of the well-documented travel delays during the summer months.

“European customers, meanwhile, are massively prompt payers across the board,” he says. “Within 14 days of receiving an invoice we are being paid, so we are not endlessly chasing our tails trying to keep on top of unpaid invoices – it’s good business.” 

VITAL STATISTICS 

Mauve Print Management

Location Hockley Heath, Solihull

Inspection host Director John Scott

Size Turnover: £1.1m; Staff: eight 

Established 2012

Products Marketing collateral, operational print (continuous & NCR forms, books and pads), business stationery, specialist labels, promotional items, display booths and mailing services 

Kit The company’s main piece of kit is its web-to-print software, but it won’t reveal what system it uses

Inspection focus Using web-to-print to sell to overseas markets

TOP TIPS

Know your client. A thorough understanding of client needs is a must especially with multinationals; this will give you enough flexibility to deal with each individual country.

Take a nuanced approach. A client may need a united marketing operation but each country will have unique needs and “quirks”, says Mauve director John Scott, so a “one-size-fits-all approach” to your web-to-print operation won’t do.

Get your message across. Mauve Print Management equips itself with detailed case studies and video presentations on why a potential customer with overseas operations should tread the web-to-print path. 

Understand the market. Dealing with different languages, business cultures and legal systems can lead to confusion and potential problems, so do as Mauve does, carry out plenty of background research.

Focus on methods of delivery. Managing international deliveries can be more complex than within the UK, so you need to make sure you have the right skills and resources to know all the options and which one is the best for a given job.