In a trading statement released this morning (14 October), ahead of its interim results for the six months to 30 September, Grafenia revealed details of a new pricing strategy 'Project OnePrice', which, it says, is partly behind a 14% boost in order volumes compared to the same time last year.
“In the last year, we’ve been through a whole exercise of removing any friction points that made it hard for our partners to do business with us,” explained group chief executive Peter Gunning. “The elephant in the room was that we were selling at lots of different prices with loads of half-price deals and deep discounts, which was confusing for clients and partners.
“Project OnePrice means that a Nettl partner and Printing.com partner now just pay the same price, an everyday low price, for ink on fabric and litho print. Our partners are winning more work with these new sharper prices but we are, like everyone else, working harder for every pound,” he added.
“What we need to do is focus on growth within our business, and in terms of the wider UK economy hope for the best and plan for the worst,” he said.
Gunning explained that with competition in the trade print sector remaining incredibly tough, added to Grafenia’s newly implemented price reductions, revenues have continued to suffer, however overall the business is producing more work in the UK and with new Printing.com and Nettl partnerships being signed all the time, volume growth was likely to continue.
The business won 20 new Printing.com partners in the first half and signed its 80th Nettl webshop partner this week, after launching the model two years ago. Gunning said the Nettl model was now beginning to gain real traction both in the UK and overseas. He said a fifth Nettl studio had recently opened in New Zealand and that he was in talks in the US relating to the signing of a master Nettl licence.
“It will take time,” he said. “Nettl definitely needs to be in the States and it’s about finding the right partner.”
Meanwhile, the group has been busy preparing for the grand opening of its own Nettl Business Store in Birmingham, last week. The site combines the sale of e-commerce, websites, print and displays, together with a meeting space for local businesses. Gunning described it as a "mash-up" of ideas and a department store where SME owners could come and see products and discuss ways to grow their businesses.
“It gives people an inspiring place to come and have business meetings rather than in a travel tavern with beige walls. We’ve had more walk-in business in the first week that we did in the previous location in six months,” he said.
“It’s attracting high-quality business looking for exciting products and not people coming in for photocopies, which was the kind of footfall you’d expect in the former days of Printing.com,” he added.
On wider group activity, Gunning said it continued to remain acquisitive and was in talks with a number of smaller, complementary businesses with a view to rolling them into the Grafenia group. He said that at the current time, no further details could be revealed.
“There’s an industrial logic for what we are trying to do,” he said.
Grafenia’s interim results will be released on Tuesday 8 November.
