Elanders Hindson

Source: Exec Digital UK

Date :31/05/2007 17:45:36

Elanders in the UK develops the complete print marketing solution to meet changing customer demands

Based in Newcastle upon Tyne, Elanders Hindson Ltd (Elanders, Newcastle) is a full service media provider with a track record of print asset management including creative design, electronic publishing, origination, quality litho/digital/web printing, storage, fulfillment & distribution

Written by James Hurley & Produced by Paul Radbourne

Elanders, Newcastle is part of the Elanders Group, one of Europe’s leading Infomedia companies, which provides a full range of multi-media expertise & print solutions through an International network of 14 production facilities.

Founded in 1908, the Swedish-based Elanders Group is the leading Nordic infomedia company and has operations in Sweden, Norway, the UK, Poland, Hungary, Italy, Germany and China. The Newcastle business, which Elanders Group purchased in 1999, is concerned with infologistics - producing user information, high quality product catalogues and documentation to support market communication for a range of companies and bodies.

Flexibility and customisation

Elanders Hindson’s Business Development Director, Kevin Rogers, has seen a number of changes in the printing industry in the 19 years he has worked within it, and he identifies a changing focus that is helping Elanders to win some impressive contracts.

“In the past companies would have been happy to commission a printer to print all the information in large volumes and then get it delivered to one location,” explains Rogers. “Customers are changing their focus. They want to find an end-to-end provider for creating, publishing and producing a print if it’s in large volume, storing it and then distributing it from their facilities. That would include taking orders for printed literature. In the past, the customer would have managed all of those processes, from order taking to storage and distribution. Now, customers are looking for companies to manage that for them. So we’ve developed systems to manage the administration and ordering processes.”

The company has the systems in place to receive orders directly from dealerships and manufacturing sites around the world, process the instruction for its fulfilment department and then ship them directly to the end destination. What Elanders’ system also allows the customer to do is produce reports so they can see what the activity is so they can manage and monitor the distribution.

This approach requires very close management of the supply chain and an intimate relationship with the client. But it has the potential to leverage some impressive advantages. Rogers cites the example of Land Rover, one of Elanders’ larger UK customers. “We produce and store all of their technical printed items. We produce enough print to allow us to manage the stock, so we always have something of everything. But we manage the stock levels so there is minimal to zero obsolescence. In consultation with the customer, we will look at the life cycle of a particular vehicle and the technical literature, and then recommend a quantity of print to the customer. In essence, we manage the whole process.

“If there’s any obsolescence, it’s is at Elanders’ risk. If we need to order a reprint, we will take the decision on whether to print that digitally or as a traditional offset, so wastage is kept to a minimum. In the past, companies would order something in the region of 15,000 copies to take advantage of economies of scale and 6,000 would end up in the skip.”

Rogers identifies customers’ desire for more control, flexibility and customisation of printed literature as a big industry trend. “We have a number of systems based around managing digital assets which can be template based. These are fixed with variable fields so customers can customize templates and then submit those for print production. It’s all about information management and distribution.”

Since Elanders Hindson can offer specialised services in these areas, there are plenty of ongoing marketing opportunities for the company. “We can educate both existing and potential customers of the opportunities that technology solutions can provide. That will include reducing obsolescence, offering greater flexibility and more specific, targeted marketing,” Rogers says.

“The big restriction in customers’ minds is their perception that it will cost them more to produce in this format. But if they do a full cost analysis on the whole project, I would say a high percentage of customers would actually save money as well as improving their marketing and communication. We work with customers and do a pre-project analysis and point out to them where the hidden costs lie within their organisation. That could be anything from ‘dead time’ to obsolescence and bad utilisation of resources.”

Changes in the industry have certainly been to Elanders’ advantage recently – the UK business has seen an increase in turnover of £1.3 million from last year and an increase in profits of three percent. “We’ve definitely had a good level of success over the last two to three years. I think the industry in general is changing. Our customers’ departments responsible for the creation, production and distribution of information are shrinking in terms of employees but in some cases the workload is increasing. This means they look for experts to help them mange their business.”

Local delivery: a global solution

Business process outsourcing is an increasingly prevalent force in the printing industry as low cost production facilities in Eastern Europe and the Far East offer prices that UK facilities can’t compete with. Being part of Elanders Group’s global footprint means that the UK business is ideally placed to face this threat, as Rogers explains. “Within the last five years, Elanders Group has really changed shape. The threat from Eastern Europe, the Far East and India is a real one in our industry. That is why we have opened up in China, why we have low cost production facilities in Poland and Hungary, and there are plans for us to open up in new territories in the future.

As customers demand ever tighter delivery times, the ability to draw on global resources is invaluable. “In some cases, customers are building transportation time into the schedules, which has been an issue in the past. There can be very tight lead times so it’s sometimes impossible to have work produced overseas. This is typical in marketing departments because they’re reacting to market behaviour. So having UK facilities for UK jobs puts us in a strong position.

“What we’re finding, and it’s part of the Elanders’ strategy, is having all of the facilities brings lots of benefits. We can manage global and pan-European contracts. Our big advantage is that we can deliver a global solution. We can print locally, which also brings major environmental benefits. We reduce our carbon footprint. Rather than producing in Eastern Europe for deliveries to Western Europe, we can produce locally.”

It’s no surprise then that the company’s marketing focus involves targeting marketing departments where there is less of a threat from the Far East and Eastern Europe - the ones working to very tight deadlines. “We aim to educate them on the full range of services that Elanders can offer and how we’ve genuinely helped other companies with similar organisation structures. We present case studies and customer testimonials to underpin the sales activities. On a more global scale, the aim is to win more large contracts that draw on our pan-European and global capabilities so that we can manage all of their business.”

Amongst some impressive recent contract wins, Elanders has added the Labour Party to its portfolio. “We’re their number one preferred supplier which means we’ll be producing nearly 60 to 70 percent of their communications literature. The real hot subject for a lot of our customers is the environmental issue and our environmental accreditation has proven crucial; if we didn’t have ISO 14001 and the FSC certification we would not have been selected to be the Labour Party’s main supplier. They have a target that 75 percent of their communications literature will be produced on FSC materials.

We recycle in excess of 80 percent of our waste, and we use vegetable based inks instead of oil based and we set new standards each year to improve on each of our environmental initiatives. We see more and more contracts dependent on our stance on environmental issues, and over the next three to five years that will become more commonplace.”

If Elanders, Newcastle’s recent activities are anything to go by, continued success based on a forward thinking approach, excellent customer service and an intuitive understanding of the market place is likely. “We continually look to develop our customers’ business, finding ways to make what they do less time consuming and more efficient and we really get to understand what their goals are,” Rogers explains. “We try to be an integral part of where the customer is going, but also help to educate them with technology and the possibilities it can open up.”