Page 12 - Print21 Magazine March April 2021

Cover Story
Dashing Group looks ahead with its new EFI roll-to-roll printer, a Pro 32r+, joining a host of production equipment at the innovative company. Managing director Russell Kavnat tells Print21 editor Wayne Robinson why it is investing in new capacity.
Dashing installs its second
EFI roll-to-roll printer, a Pro 32r+
Not every print business looks back at a record year and decides to exit the market to move into a brand new sector, but
that is the story of Dashing Group, one of the country’s leading suppliers of visual merchandising.
With beginnings 30 years ago as
a quick printer with one store in North Sydney, the company grew, developing a unique offer to their clients. Eight years after Russell Kavnat and his business partner Chad Jankz joined the business, Dashing had its best-ever year, operating in the typical commercial world of brochures, flyers and business cards. However, the directors saw the signs, thinking that commercial print as a low margin, hard to differentiate business, in a world that was turning digital, was not the place where Dashing would enjoy sustained growth.
Russell took off on a study tour
to Europe, and through this and other research decided to take the business away from commercial print, and into visual merchandising. He says, “I saw this trend of VM happening across Europe, retailers investing heavily in their visual merchandising. When I came back we decided to get into that space. Print would still be a key part
of the offering, but the Dashing offering would be much more than print, with creative design a major component, as well as installation. He says, “There was no-one in
12 Print21 MARCH/APRIL 2021
Above
Performance: Russell Kavnat (left) with Darren Massey and the new EFI Pro 32r+ at Dashing Group
Sydney that was specialising at
that time. Melbourne had some strong companies, but we found our proposition was welcomed by the Sydney retail sector.”
Aiming to fast track the process, Dashing acquired Chris Pilz’s
On Demand wide format print business, and moved it into the Dashing premises, and at the same time bought a one-man technology platform business, which has since received considerable investment.
The company kept the best customers from the commercial world, but today 95 per cent of its clients
are the retailers, or brands, or print managers who are servicing retail.
Dashing experienced growth over the following five years, and made some considerable investments in people, technology and equipment.
That investment in new technology is continuing, the latest being a new 3.2m roll-to-roll EFI Vutek Pro 32r+, which joins another 3.2m Vutek 3r on the floor, doubling the roll-to-roll capacity. The company also has several other large format printers, with its first EFI Vutek coming in two years ago.
Russell says, “There was a good opportunity to upgrade our fleet, the roll-to-roll business has been strong
for several months now, and we had reached capacity on the existing Vutek.”
With the attention to detail that
is one of the characteristics of the Dashing business, the company ran “quite a lengthy” exercise, comparing what was what in the roll-to-roll
market. However, Russell says that as a result of the analysis, “the decision this time actually became quite easy”.
Colour reproduction and fidelity was a key factor, with the Dashing business being all about the brand experience, the colours have to be spot-on every time. Russell says, “Our experience with the first Vutek has been that the EFI software and hardware delivers accurate colour time after time.
“And from a speed and quality and cost to maintain perspective, the first Vutek has performed well, so it was quite an easy decision to go for another EFI roll-to-roll printer.”
The EFI Pro 32r+ has been put to use straight away, producing a range of decals, posters, banners, and floor graphics. Russell says, “Dashing creates the brand experience for our clients. They are all in competitive environments, not only with other brands in the store, but with the online world. They are seeking to engage with their customers. Colour fidelity is crucial to that.”
Dashing Group is far more than
a print business, in fact, it leads
to clients with its studio team of creative industrial designers, who come up with the concept for the brand experience. Russell says, “We have a reputation for being leaders
in the retail design space for visual merchandising. The print output must match the creative proposition. And that's because the clients want the kind of high quality graphics that we provide. The new EFI Pro 32r+