Page 35 - Print21 Nov-Dec 2019

Company Profile
Print restructured the business and added large format printing to its growing portfolio. However, the game changer, as Fred puts it, was a new Heidelberg Anicolor SM52 four-colour press, which was able to print short- to medium-length runs cost effectively, due to minimal waste generated. The Anicolor replaced three older presses, and the reduced footprint helped Soar Print consolidate all three facilities onto one site.
Meanwhile, the company had continued to invest in Heidelberg presses, adding a CD 74 six-colour and a CD 74 five-colour to its stable in 2002, which boosted production efficiency and energy savings significantly, according to Fred. In 2007, the company’s investment in a Heidelberg XL 105 six-colour press marked another first for the New Zealand print industry.
Around the same time, he relates, environmental awareness was on the ascent, triggering a shift in business philosophy and strategy that centred on sustainability. Today this remains at the core of the business, drives much of the decision-making, and has earned the company a swag of awards for its achievements.
By 2011, Soar Print could declare itself carbon neutral; in 2013 it
won the Fairfax Supreme Award for Sustainability; and, in 2015, it added a NZ Government Green Ribbon award for reducing carbon footprint to the tally. And this year it received the Excellence in Climate Action – Small Organisation accolade at the Enviro-Mark Solutions Awards.
Today, the ISO 14001-certified Soar Print is constantly seeking ways to reduce its carbon footprint.
A sure-fire solution is, of course, to invest in new technology that uses less power and produces less waste.
The purchase in 2018 of the Heidelberg Speedmaster CX 102 six- colour plus coater was another first
– Soar became the first printer in ANZ to adopt Heidelberg’s new subscription model, reducing costs by 20 per
cent. The integrated push to stop technology means there’s no need to stop the press for make ready, saving 300,000 sheets of waste per month.
Another cost saver and another first has been the installation of an Océ VarioPrint i300 sheetfed inkjet press.
“We had been looking at inkjet feasibility for five years, comparing it to offset platforms. With this
Océ technology, because you don’t have to use speciality papers, and with its inline finishing capabilities, it suddenly made sense to opt for inkjet. We’re finding more and more customers who want short run books – less than two hundred copies – and this is the best in class for doing that,” says Fred.
The inkjet press is installed at the plant in Hamilton, which Soar Print acquired when it bought Fusion Print in 2017, two years after it purchased CCL Communication and ahead of
its 2019 acquisitions of Newcomb Digital and SMP Print.
With 13 acquisitions under the belt since 1993, Soar Print’s immediate plan is to tackle the challenge of integrating the new businesses and finding synergies.
Implementation of the printIQ Management Workflow System across the business will also be a focus.
Main:
Heidelberg has been
a valuable technology partner for Soar Print.
Below: Forward thinkers: Fred Soar (right) and Brian Landry.
“An important part of our vision
is to identify new technologies
that will give us the capability to produce what our growing and varied customer base requires, from digital packaging, labels – and now books – to large run offset jobs.
“Food packaging and labels is a key growth sector. Forty-five per cent
of all manufactured product in New Zealand is food based. We’re staying in that space, and our digital printing
expertise will play a big part in servicing this market,” says Fred.
Today the split of the business is 45 per cent digital to 55 per cent
offset. In five years’ time, he predicts, digital will have reached 60 per cent. “I wouldn’t like to think where
we’d be if we hadn’t taken that first leap of faith into labels five years ago,” he says.
“Every time we invest, we take a risk knowing that we may not see a return straight away, but that’s what’s good about being a family- owned business. We don’t have to answer to shareholders or private equity stakeholders. We are the masters of our own destiny.”
And whatever that destiny, the company is in full flight towards
it, fuelled by a rich heritage, a commendable sustainability pedigree, and a strategic vision that has to date produced an enviable track record. 21
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