Page 44 - Print 21 Magazine Sep-Oct 2021

Cover Feature
Printing consumables
EBuilding trust in relationships
ven in this modern age, traditions focused on the emerging low energy UV offset of service and trust remain as the market, keeping ahead of the curve in this high- foundations of value and reputation. technology printing.
Building trust in relationships is “We have a significant share of the market in paramount to success and is code Colin low-energy inks, which has increased over the
Edwards, national sales manager - consumables, past few years. More than half of those users
Colin Edwards, national sales manager - Consumables
Currie Group, has always taken to heart.
“It’s about having a relationship with your
customers, building trust, so they know you’ll be there when they need you. I’ve always believed that.”
The popular industry veteran has lived by this philosophy for decades and it’s one he conscientiously applies to his role in managing Currie Group’s essential consumables portfolio. Covering everything from printing plates to inks, to coatings and chemicals, consumable products are an important part of the Group’s overall engagement with the industry.
Edwards aims to deliver a complete package of essential products to some of the largest printers in the country, as well as to the majority of small to medium operators in the offset industry. Although many of the products are well-established brands and technologies, he believes continuing innovation is integral to the value of the offering. Currently he is especially
also run our specifically designed UV fountain solutions and blankets. ”
While acknowledging that low energy UV solutions are more expensive, he believes the savings generated by the technology in the ability for immediate post processing is the major advantage and reason why the low energy UV market is growing.
He estimates Currie Group also supplies a healthy percentage of the conventional ink & consumables market. The other growth area for Currie Group is in water based and UV coatings, which are sourced typically from Europe and sold under Currie Group’s private label, Current Images. Product selection and technical support is an important framework for successfully selling coatings. Overall, the business is enjoying year on year growth in what is, an undoubtedly declining market.
“We continue to strive and endeavour to deliver what is best for our customers,” he said.
Service and customer relations
Right people in the right place
Currie Group’s broad range of printing, packaging, finishing, sign and display,
and manufacturing equipment is spread throughout hundreds of customers’ premises across Australia and New Zealand. Unique in scope and ambition, there is nothing else like it in the industry in
terms of the number of personnel, or how its engineers are cross trained to service digital, offset, inkjet, finishing and 3D printing production devices.
According to Marcus Robinson, group operations manager, it’s always a matter of getting the balance right, of making
sure the right people are in the right place. That’s ever more important in
a today’s era. Currie Group’s 50-plus engineers are a mixture of traditional mechanical and electrical veterans along with a growing number of university graduates that have come through the Group’s graduate engineer programme.
Currie Group technicians are among the most versatile in the industry. In recent years Robinson has instituted a cross training programme to develop their skills across different platforms.
“We’ve quite the headcount in a lot of different locations and many of our customers
same time. In the past 24 months we’ve really honed in on cross training. We
still have our specialist experts in each segment – HP Indigo, Horizon, sign & display, and labels & packaging. But we’ve now cross trained many of our engineers.”
The business has also trained a number of Currie Group engineers to service 3D printing equipment, allowing the new EVOK3D division to gain traction across the breadth of Australia and New Zealand. A change to the service structure has
now split the division in two, northern and southern regions, with experienced customer relationship managers for each region: Allison Whitelaw in Sydney and Molly Collins in Melbourne.
According to Robinson, Allison & Molly understand our business, our customers and the challenges they face day-to-day. They are both customer centric and nothing is ever a problem.
“Managing our service engineers’ schedules and prioritising customer enquiries isn’t an easy job. However, when we have Allison and Molly at the helm it makes for smoother sailing.” 21
Service: (l-r) Marcus Robinson, group operations manager; Allison Whitelaw, customer relationship manager;
Molly Collins, customer relationship manager
have multiple pieces
of our equipment, not only a HP Indigo, but also a Horizon booklet maker, then maybe a CTP as well. It didn’t make sense to us if we had a HP Indigo-trained engineer on site that they couldn’t take a look at the binder at the
44 Print21 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021