Crystal: Where did you visit, and what types of businesses were you visiting?
Tania: Basically what I was doing was I went up North - as we've now got five new suppliers
on board! the aim of the visit was firstly to show them the application and what Patchpro is capable of doing in terms of these new suppliers coming onto our network with The Production House and being able to quote out direct to the client using The Production House branding. And additionally, to see what other products these suppliers have got available to supply The Production House, and to gain an understanding of what their core business is and what they are able to add to the existing product base so we can offer New Zealanders a wider range of signage and marketing products.
Crystal: Was there anything you were hoping to specifically gain from these business by being right there on site amongst the action?
Tania: My aim was to gain a clearer understanding of what these suppliers would be able to help The Production House with, in terms of production and print media, and also to bring back to the team some useful information on what these suppliers can sell to our Clients. Making sure that the team has a fuller understanding of different signage, all different printing products, and being able to show our team what these new suppliers can do.
Crystal: How different was each business you visited, and do you think they each had their own angle on the market?
Tania: Each business was very different to one another. For example - I visited three Signage Companies and one was a smaller setup, but their core business was more signage specific, in terms of your 'coreflute signs' and 'printing on canvas' as well as 'vehicle signage' involving vinyl application. Whereas one of the others went in a different direction - they had a spray booth, they did light-box signs, they made all sorts of plastic stands - for example brochure stands and and business card stands in clear or frosted finishes, and your motel toothbrush stands etc.
And then the other business took it a step further and they've got a Router Cutter and can cut custom wood and metal up to a thickness of at least 3 centimetres. So these business, even though they were all signage based, they were very each very unique in terms of what they specialise in, and what they could offer The Production House.
Crystal: So what about the other business you visited?
Tania: Of the other two business I saw, one was a Digital Print based company who was in-line with another signage company doing stickers, 'Decals' and 'Coreflutes'. And the other was an Offset Printer company capable of printing A2 size and offering many print capabilities including Coldset Newspaper Printing.
Crystal: Can you think of anything that really stood out from each company? Something that impressed you personally?
Tania: Working here at Patch Design & Print for the last five years and building up a relationship with these clients or customers and now them turning into suppliers, originally I had thought that these businesses and operations were very small, and for one of them that was in Tepuke I was absolutely blown away at the size of their factory and how many staff were there, and all the different options that they could apply to signage and things like that, for example I didn't even know they had a spray booth on their premises!
And the other one I've been dealing with and talking to for the last three years and I was surprised that not only do they do signage and motorcross stickers and decals but they can also do customised products.. they cut wood for signage, they cut metal, as mentioned 3cm thick.
So they're all very different and I was rather blown away by what these companies do, and the friendliness and professionalism of everyone I met was outstanding. New Zealand has a lot of hidden talent that we hope to help make available to those who can benefit from it in promoting more New Zealand industries!
Crystal: In your own words, what would the benefits of these varied companies association with Patch be?
Tania: Well the benefits are not so much for us, but for our client base and reseller base. Earlier on this company was very much focused on design and print and websites and things like that, now we've got this wider range of signage we can offer in various centres around New Zealand, that can do various printing onto different media.
It's not all just your Offset and Digital focus. Now we're becoming more of a one-stop-shop for our Clients in terms of design and printed media or advertising. We've also got the tools to help our suppliers that are on board, where they can use our tools for their website and create their own catalogue aswell so it's a win win situation for both companies.
Crystal: There's a lot of media options for people wanting to promote themselves and the environmental angle means a lot to people these days. Did this issue come up with any of the suppliers about the environmental sustainability of their products?
Tania: It depends, in terms of some of the signage you could say it was environmentally friendly because it will last up to ten years. I didn't approach this angle with our suppliers but this is something I would advise Clients to talk to us about if it is an issue they want to investigate a particular advertising media.
It depends on what you're printing at the end of the day, for example we've now got 'coffee holders' made of thin card that we never used to have available, and these are a much better solution than the previous carton-like options you would get from a drive-through. There are a lot of recycled papers now available that our Clients are welcome to ask us about.
For the rest of this fascinating and insightful interview - if I do say so myself - see our next blog.
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