Focussing on what it does best has been crucial to Print Monkey’s success – and it’s starting to show, as the young company, headed up by Lucy Ratcliffe, continues to secure new business with key clients. Her small team operate out of impressive modern premises in the Shropshire market town of Whitchurch and provide wide-format print services to customers in the North West and Midlands, making use of an enviable line up of printing, cutting and finishing hardware that includes a Mimaki JV5 wide format printer, a Mimaki CJV30-160 printer/cutter, a standalone Mimaki CG-160FX plotter and a laminator. A new Rollover flatbed laminator is soon to be added to the arsenal, ensuring a speedy response to outdoor durable jobs.
“We’ve developed as a company in the last few years,” says Ratcliffe – a former leisure centre manager who spotted a requirement for producing team wear and set Print Monkey up with this in mind. “Whilst we originally considered supplying sports teams with their bespoke kits, we soon realised that offering a broader range of products would be more profitable and that got us into the wide format market.”
Investing first in the Mimaki printer/cutter and shortly after; the high end production JV5 printer; Print Monkey’s product line swiftly evolved and the company supplies high volumes of banners, exhibition displays and posters. With the addition of the flatbed laminator, prints on rigid substrates are proving popular too. “A retail order of 300 boards has paid off a chunk of our investment in the Rollover already, but we still supply printed garments too.”
The company has recently developed a sub-brand exclusively to assist design agencies in their supply of wide format printed products. Print Monkey Pro tends to the specific needs of agencies that don’t have the capability to handle long runs or specialist jobs and has rapidly become a key partner for a number of high profile organisations, delivering work for well known brands. Investment in Clarity’s workflow software has assisted with the increase in jobs going out of the door and the company’s geographical proximity to Signmaster Systems – the authorised Mimaki reseller from whom they’ve purchased their wide format hardware – has been a bigger benefit than Ratcliffe had ever imagined. “The support we’ve received from the Signmaster team has been integral to our success as a company,” she states. “Whether it’s a last minute order for a roll of material, the quality of their training or the response speed of their technical team, it’s made a real difference.”
Print Monkey’s business has grown through a combination of targeted integrated marketing, word of mouth and local networking – it’s the latter that Ratcliffe is focussing on most at the moment. “We realised that in spite of an initial heavy investment in online advertising, most business was coming from local advertising and networking events,” she confirms. Ratcliffe is so convinced of its benefits that she’s setting up a local networking group within the town itself.
The development (and leveraging) of partnerships is an aspect of the business that’s working well for them and one particular assistance that it’s grateful for is the Let’s Do More rebate linked recycling scheme, run by Mimaki’s exclusive UK and Irish distributor, Hybrid Services. “It’s a massive help to us,” confirms Ratcliffe. “A scheme that not only helps us to manage our print waste but rewards us for doing so as well, is of real value.”
Planned expansion – the company is seeking an apprentice who will complete an NVQ in Digital Print with the Learn to Print Apprenticeship company – is expected to pay off and since Ratcliffe took sole charge of the company at the start of 2013, things continue to go from strength to strength. “Some key new accounts have brought in regular volume business,” confirms Ratcliffe. “Our focus on popular product lines is proving very successful so we’ll carry on doing what we do best!”
www.printmonkey.co.uk