Page 48 - Print21 Jan-Feb 2022

Profil
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Pearsall regards his time with Security Mail as a valuable learning experience, but with the changes in the business, especially the corporate culture that came with growth, he started to look for his next challenge. Stepping outside for a while he looked around before hooking up with industry identity, Paul Tannous, at [what became] iGroup Australia. He stayed there almost ten years and still calls Tannous a good mate.
“Paul was great. He taught me a lot about customer service. We had so much success and the business grew. It got to the stage there were Sydney and Melbourne locations serving major clients such as Telstra,” said Pearsall.
But again, with the growth came corporate culture that sat uneasily with Pearsall. So he left in 2009 to go and take some time out, travelling America for some months, working out where he wanted to go and what he wanted to do. He looked at doing some consulting work but eventually decided that mailing was what he knew best and what he liked. He wanted to give it a go for himself.
“The thing I know best is mail.
I just know it so well, so I thought, ‘why don’t I have a crack at it on
my own?’ A friend of mine, Rodney Frost from Chequemates, told me about Active Mail. It wasn’t really
a mail house, just two old guys in their 70s, up to their eyeballs in debt, who had run it into the ground. They had a couple of little bits of equipment, one laser, a two-colour GTO, and one mail inserter at a factory of 150 square meters in Taren Point. I met with them, John Stark and Bob Pulver. I told them I was looking to have my own show and I needed a base to start from. We were completely open and honest. They told me they were in a severe predicament financially, but if I wanted to come in and have a crack at it and could fix it, then I could have it. And that’s what happened. We’re still great mates today.”
Pearsall stepped in and they stood back. It worked so well that within three years new premises were sought. The Kurnell factory was available, with almost the same rent due to its location. The move took the company from 150m2 to its current 2000m2.
“After that it just accelerated,” said Pearsall. “We started picking up so much work. It was five years into our relationship when I said to them: ‘Look, I’ve done what I said I’d do. You’ve saved your skins, you didn’t
lose your houses, and the debt’s been paid. There’re your cars, there’s your severance package.’ It worked very well and they were gracious with it.”
An entity restructure saw Pearsall emerge as his own master, with a relatively debt free business. He was in new premises but he makes the point that he never had any real finance, so every acquisition had to be paid for.
Since then Active Mail has kept on growing. “It’s crazy. People keep on saying why do you bother when mail is going to die. But it’s not.”
“A lot of printers I know are trying to do it, but they just don’t know how. You can’t do it like a scheduled print run.” – Luke Pearsall, Active Mail
It’s a competitive industry where large companies have traditionally seized the lion’s share, but Pearsall relishes the challenge.
“I’ve got to compete with everyone, especially with the big guys like
IVE, which is a juggernaut. But
they become so big they’re more regimented, they lose flexibility. I’m not greedy. I lose accounts sometimes, of course I do, but not often. Then I have to go out to fill that gap.”
Trade is an important source of work and in recent times Active Mail has taken on a number of A1-size printers as well as print managers
as clients. It delivers an even wider spread of work for the company.
The end-to end service it provides includes offset as well as digital print. The recent acquisition of a Konica Minolta 14000 press saw a break from a long relationship with Fuji Xerox. The new badge now sits alongside three FX Nuvera presses: 288, 314 & 144 and a 1000i Colour press. The digital room complements a Heidelberg five-colour A3 offset press out in the factory and there’s little doubt that if Active Mail decided to go down that path there is enough print work to satisfy a bigger press. However, of all the printing kit, Pearsall is happy to single out
his two Riso ComColor GDs as his preferred workhorses, the office-style machines pumping out 160 ppm. He signals his intention to buy a couple more in the future. 21
A broad church
The breadth of industries that makes up Active Mail’s client list is a testament to the strength of direct mail. Pearsall deliberately works across a wide range of sectors in order to even out the
peaks and troughs. He maintains that
if he concentrated on not-for-profit charities, for instance, he’d be quiet
for two months of the year. A quick rundown of Active Mail’s clients includes charities, finance, retail, publications, fitness, pharmaceuticals, wine, government, automotive and political/government, and more.
Below
Luke Pearsall: Content to keep offset printing as an added value service for
48 Print21 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022