PIAA seeks industry transformation with record $11m funding

Printing Industries is launching a new over-arching multi-faceted programme, called Future Print, created to enable smaller print businesses to transition to profitable multi-channel communication operators in the new era.

Funded by a record $11m in government grants recently obtained for the print industry by PIAA and the AMWU, the new programme will be launched in the middle of this year, and aims to provide print businesses with turnovers of less than $1.5m with the knowledge and expertise to transform their businesses from ink on paper merchants to communications providers.

Bill Healey, CEO of Printing Industries, says, “It is well documented that the American railroads failed because they thought they were in the railroad business, when in fact they we in the transportation business. Similarly printers are no longer in the printing business, they are in the communications business, and this is a rapidly developing multi-channel world full of opportunity.

“Printing industries, the Union, and the Government, all want sustainable firms within the printing industry, firms that are generating wealth, providing employment and so benefiting the economy and the country. This new programme will go some way to addressing this by broadening the skills, knowledge and expertise of print businesses to enable them to offer new products, new services and to enter new markets.”

The PIAA is aiming for an initial 350 printers to sign up for an initial independent business assessment. From there it is targeting 200 businesses that want to go through the programme, the details of which have yet to be worked out, but which will involve printers receiving the tools and advise they need to move their businesses forward. It believes the other 150 will comprise those businesses that are already on the way to a multi-channel provider model and need little or no assistance, and those that are not viable and are looking to exit the industry.

As part of the programme the PIAA has produced a 32pp information booklet called Priorities in Print, which it will give to every MP and Senator. It covers areas such as financing capital equipment, training, skills shortages, energy, regulation and postal services. It will also be seeking face to face meetings with them all. Healey says, “The print industry when allied with other connected industries employs about 180,000 people, we are making the government and backbenchers increasingly aware of that fact. We are not looking for subsidies like the car industry, but we do believe the government can assist in the evolution of the industry, and we believe that if they do they will see a massive return on that investment.

Future Print is the most significant action in the industry since the launch of the Print21 Action Scheme, launched in 2000. Healey says, “We aim to build on Print21, which was a tremendous piece of work, but it was launched 14 years ago in a different, so the new programme goes much further.”

Healey believes the print industry will transform in many ways, he says, “For instance print precincts or networks may develop where printers get together and either buy a piece of kit between them, or share work between them.”

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