Page 26 - Prnt21 magazine Jan-Feb 2023

| Print Profile| Packaging
Packaging
print disruptor
Still in his mid-twenties Jordan Shreeve has created
a disruptive packaging business using new technology and a clear understanding of the market needs.
kept the product range tight, just 10 different mailboxes were available.
An unknown service is not an easy sell. Fortunately Reeve’s experience of selling stood him in good stead,
he knew that rejection was part of the story, and was nothing personal. With little in the way of marketing budget, he set about using social media to connect with potential customers, Instagram in particular. He says, “It was slow going at first, it took months to get real engagement, but I always knew that the concept was a real winner, and that once brands understood it and used it successfully we would be away.”
Still, it takes some determination to keep going, on your own, with little response, but that determination
to keep pushing on with little real encouragement is one of the defining characteristics of entrepreneurs.
At the 12 month marker though a turning point had been reached, there was a trickle of clients, and organic growth was taking place
as their experiences were positive. In a market typified by the ‘sure you can have any number you want
HWayne Robinson reports. ow many great
businesses start-up from the bedroom, the garage or the basement? Lots
is the answer, including many of the biggest techs – think HP, Apple and Microsoft for starters.
And that is the case with Inke Packaging, a mould-breaking tech business that is disrupting the local packaging market, by offering an online box ordering service, those boxes now available in any size and any run length, and available to order at any time of the night and day.
Just four years after the idea became a business, which he started operating with a laptop in his bedroom, the young entrepreneur behind Inke Packaging, Jordan Shreeve, is now about to launch a new platform, has half a dozen full time staff, and works with some of the biggest brands in the country, as well as a host of smaller ones.
INDUSTRY NEEDS YOUTH
Every industry needs youth, to
give it the injection of energy, new ideas, and in the modern era, to bring in the possibilities that only digital natives, those who have been brought up with tech, can see.
Schreeve, now the ripe old age
of 26, left school with no desire to spend a further three or four years in study, he was hungry for action in the real world. He joined a printing company, and spent two years on
the floor learning the production processes, before moving into sales for the next two years. He was tasked
with selling corrugated, and worked with some major clients, including the likes of Mondelez, although POS was the focus rather than packaging.
As he grew in the role he realised that much of the process could be achieved with far more efficiencies online. He says, “I may have been naïve, but it was clear to me, as a young person who understood tech, that the old school traditional way of serving clients and presenting was ripe for change, through technology.”
“I always knew that the concept was
a real winner, and that once brands understood it and used it successfully we would be away.”
Jordan Shreeve, Inke Packaging
So convinced was Reeve by his analysis that at the age of 22 he
quit the job and set out to bring
his vision to reality. Good things rarely happen in a flash though, and it took the young visionary a year
of beavering away with his laptop on his bedroom desk before the business started to gain traction.
The idea was simple, Reeve explains, “Really it’s just like ordering a t-shirt online. There are parameters to input, a design to upload, and that’s it, straightforward as can be. It put control back in the hands of the brand, and meant they could order whenever they wanted.
“I removed the jargon, provided instant pricing, gave a firm delivery date, and made it so that ordering was effortless.” In those early days Reeve
but there’s a minimum of 50,000’ a new venture offering short-run on demand resonated, with both the new generation of emerging entrepreneurs in the FMCG market, and the established brands who wanted promotional runs, or test runs.
Inke does no printing of its own, it contracted a digital print partner, which it still uses, to handle all its short run digital jobs.
When the turning point was reached Reeve moved out of the bedroom desk to an office, in a co- working space, and from there the business began to really ramp up.
He took on his first full time staff member. Over the next three years the business grew, with more staff added. Six months ago he moved into a far larger space, taking a long lease
26 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2023