Page 43 - Print21 Magazine May-June 2021

Industry
Comment: Opportunity for unity in movement
Andrew Macaulay’s departure comes at
a pivotal time for the industry, which is considerably different to when he took the reins, with many wondering if print would be better served by the various industry associations becoming one body.
Macaulay became CEO at PVCA at what was a stormy time in the association’s history, following the short-lived tenure of his predecessor Jason Allen.
Certainly as far as the commercial
world is concerned, print today is a
smaller sector, however digitisation has been blurring what were strong lines of demarcation in print: commercial print, labels, sign and display print, packaging, garments, interior décor – all were distinct print sectors, and served by distinct associations. Even within commercial print there were the big catalogue players, which gave rise to a new association, TRMC, and then the rest of the commercial world.
However those days are gone. Commercial printers are now printing display POS, label printers are printing packaging, franchise printers are printing t-shirts and caps. Few print businesses just stick to one sector. Digitisation has meant that the process is the same – only the output unit is different, and even there, little difference is apparent in the technology and the connection.
Industry observers believe there is already an excess of associations in print and have long urged consolidation, just as print businesses consolidate the
different processes within their own factories. PVCA is the biggest association and represents commercial and digital print business owners. The era of division is long gone, and a return to stability
and a focus on support has been one of the successes of the Macaulay era. Its membership has stabilised.
The Real Media Collective (TRMC)
came together two years ago under Kellie Northwood from an amalgamation of The Australian Catalogue Association, print environmental lobbyists Two Sides, and the Australian Paper Association, with Ovato and IVE both founder members, along with Salmat – now absorbed into IVE – and AusPost. Its membership tends to be the bigger printers, but there is some duplication of PVCA areas and activities.
As far as PVCA is concerned, any
rapprochement or merger between itself and TRMC would need to be largely on its terms, and given the history between the two groups, that may be a big ask.
The smaller associations fear being subsumed into PVCA, thinking that while it may provide some benefits, it may see them lose their identities.
Fespa and Asga represent the sign
and display sector, FPLMA the label and wide web printing sector, LIA the old lithographic print sector with a focus on the craft of printing itself, and Swug is there for what’s left of newspaper printers.
In addition, general industry associations such as AiG are also active in the print industry. Visual Connections represents the print
industry suppliers, but any consolidation between it and an employers’ group
would be unlikely, given the cultural differences between what are mainly large multinationals on the supply side, and small print shops on the other. It would also face inherent conflicts in nominating a few people from the supply side to work with their rivals’ customers.
Macaulay’s imminent departure gives a real opportunity for the print industry to coalesce into one body, with distinct sub areas for sure, but essentially as one. Unity is strength is not just a mantra of the trade union movement, but of any successful group. Having one voice in an increasingly fragmented world has to be the ideal for the industry, but hurdles abound. 21
Unity is strength
on five years as CEO of PVCA
the Gold Winners from the National Print Awards on show.
The Print in Australia initiative launched last year to convince government and government-funded institutions that their tax dollars for print were better value for taxpayers if spent here – even if the headline cost was more than using a Chinese printer – was one of his proudest moments. Some 4000 printers signed the Bring Back Print petition within weeks of its launch.
Macaulay developed a good and effective working relationship with AMWU and its print secretary Lorraine Cassin which saw them working together on many fronts, often singing from the same hymn sheet
– especially in Canberra – although with
the usual disagreements in various areas. Nonetheless it was a respectful relationship.
He was especially proud of the association’s response to Covid-19, which
posed a number of challenges for the organisation, as it did for many membership organisations. However, the association proved agile, and turned those challenges into opportunities, innovated and launched multiple online services, online awards programmes, online industry sustainability certification, and an extensive and well- subscribed series of specialist webinars in IR, finance and government services.
Perhaps inevitably for someone in his position of modernising a 140-year-old association, Macaulay was not everyone’s cup of tea, his clubby approach didn’t endear him to everyone, and his focus on the
future rankled with a few of those keen to celebrate the past. His political stance was not to everyone’s taste, but in his leadership position, it was balanced by Walter Kuhn’s yin to his yang. There were clashes with some big personalities over the years,
but the current board remain resolutely supportive of him.
PVCA membership has stabilised at around 750, a quarter down on five years ago – an inevitable decline given the shrinkage in commercial print. However, membership numbers have been steady for the past couple of years.
Macaulay’s last major act was to deliver a deal with Visual Connections general manager Peter Harper to create a new joint venture company owned by the suppliers association and PVCA – Visual Industries Events – to secure and produce the major industry events into the future, including PacPrint, which is scheduled to run in September.
The search now begins for a new CEO who will take on the role facing a different set
of issues to those that confronted Macaulay five years ago, but that nonetheless are just as important. 21
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