appointments  business planning 
Enthusiasm, optimism and hard work are paying off for Mark and Nicky Thomas of QSP Print Solutions on Auckland’s North Shore. The couple established QSP Print in 1999, after many years experience in all aspects of the printing industry. Their belief that the customer’s needs are the only needs, and their concentrated focus on quality products is seeing QSP go from strength to strength.

Along the way this enterprising couple have gathered a powerful team of like-minded people, developing a young, vibrant team of employees with extensive knowledge of the print industry. Growth and commitment to quality has recently seen QSP add a Heidelberg Quickmaster 46 to its line-up of equipment.

Establishing QSP was a big call. Mark and Nicky had no client base and no experience in running a business. What they did have was energy, printing and graphics skills and some good support.

Initially the couple kept their full time jobs, Mark at Printco Graphics where he had served his apprenticeship and Nicky at Decrastrip Ltd. By working their own business after hours out of borrowed premises they managed to get up and running.

By the beginning of 2000 QSP was installed in its North Shore premises. Mark was still putting in four ten hour days a week at Printco with the remaining three spent hard at it at QSP. Nicky was doing the accounts and getting out on the road door knocking and putting out flyers. Both were, in their own words "harassing family and friends to put some work their way. "Every day was a challenge, " Mark says."

By the end of 2000 the Thomas’ were not just the owners of a new business, but had also welcomed their first baby, Stefanie. It was now time for Mark to give up his job with Printco and concentrate full time on QSP. With the help of a good day care centre Nicky was able to keep up her selling and book keeping.

They boxed on and in July 2001 purchased a second hand KBA Rapida A2- 2 colour press from Printco Graphics who had installed a brand new Heidelberg machine.

"This moved us to the next level. Printco now had a Heidelberg SM 4 colour and a SM 6 colour so they gave us quite a bit of two colour work and that helped out. They were very supportive."

The pressure was on, the business was starting to grow. QSP employed its first staff member, a bindery assistant and driver. Next came a part time office lady. Both Mark and Nicky’s families were still major players collating their NCR books and packing until they could manage to finance a second hand collator.

In 2001 Mark also started to talk to Danny Beskalo from Heidelberg New Zealand about purchasing a press suitable to take advantage of the demand for high quality corporate stationary such as business cards, letter heads, colour brochures and the like, which are 90 per cent two colour. " We could only go down to SRA3 on our KBA machine and while the GTO can print to max size SRA3 it’s only one colour. I felt we were getting to the point where we needed a press like a Heidelberg Quickmaster to offer top service, high quality that could meet demand.

" We were tossing up whether to get a GTO 52-2 colour or step up to the Quickmaster. Danny was good, he gave us excellent information about both options. I had seen a Quickmaster in action for the first time at Printech 2000. I was amazed at how it could be operated from the digital console, automatic plates, automatic blanket washer and all the other digital functions that the GTO just doesn’t have."

By late 2002 Danny Beskalo had found Mark and Nicky a suitable used Quickmaster. It was taken to the Heidelberg workshop where it was stripped down, cleaned and fitted with new parts. It was installed in February this year for a three month trial. Mark had work waiting for the newly refurbished press.

"The press came in on the Friday and on Monday Graham O’Keefe from Heidelberg came in and suddenly our first job was going through. It was an A3 entry form, solid coverage on 80gm stock. I was amazed at the quality, genuinely blown away - and so was the customer.

" I had to learn the press from scratch. Graham O’Keefe spent three days with me. He was brilliant, really good. So were the engineers, they treated us with the same professionalism as they had in the past at Printco. They know what they’re doing and they give good advice."

With the Quickmaster more than proving its worth QSP went into a growth spurt. With staff numbers now at eight Mark has a bit more time to put into planning future direction. He does this with the support of a business coach, Chris Baker at Action International who provides a sounding board to help the Thomas’ write their own road map for ongoing development of the business.

This enterprising couple have heaps of expansion planned. The next step is to employ more staff to keep up with demand. Bigger premises are becoming an essential. Moving will coincide with introducing night shifts. Mark is talking to Danny Beskalo about making the next step up to a Heidelberg 4 colour press. Plans to set up a prepress and design section are also on QSP’s expansion agenda.

Mark and Nicky successfully worked through a major client closing down and with the help and support of their suppliers, staff and families have grown to be a force to be reckoned with. Not bad going for a couple of young Kiwis who decided to have a go. Their progress is an example of what the Kiwi can-do attitude can do.