As soon as new CEO Krister Mellström walked through the doors at EO Grafiska in 2010, he realised he had his work cut out. The Swedish company, an offset commercial print service provider, was struggling financially because of its outdated traditional print business model and a lacklustre digital printing infrastructure.

“In short, the business was out of touch with the modern communications landscape and I was brought in to stop the rot,” explains Mellström. “2010 was a significant year as it was around that time that digital media and the internet began to really impact the communications landscape and, of course, the print industry. Our big clients – such as the City of Stockholm, and major Swedish food supplier Hemköp – needed a communications service that responded to these market changes.”

Representative of the global print industry as a whole, page volumes were falling and customer demand for short-run, quick turnaround and variable data print was rising, as was the need for digital media. While these trends pointed to digital printing technology, Mellström found that EO Grafiska’s digital print environment was in disarray: “Digital printing is tailored made for those market conditions. Unfortunately, our incumbent technology was underperforming and costly. Moreover, we had poor support from our technology supplier, who only appeared interested in our contract than guiding our business. We needed to address this issue – and fast.”

Just as EO Grafiska actively sought out Mellström to help turn the company’s fortunes around – owing to his vast experience working in demanding management roles within the print market – Mellström headhunted Canon to discuss EO Grafiska’s challenges.

“I’ve always had a great experience working with Canon as it puts the customer’s business first before any sales pitch. Our vision was to deliver a market-leading communications service that was underpinned by an efficient workflow and reliable, fast print technology. If anyone could help us, it was going to be Canon.”

Solution

Canon visited EO Grafiska’s factory in Stockholm to analyse the company’s business, and quickly came to many of the same conclusions as Mellström. “Canon saw what we saw: a digital print infrastructure consisting of too much slow machinery that was incorrectly configured and incapable of delivering a quality service,” continues Mellström.

“We had many detailed and honest discussions about what we wanted to achieve, what our customers’ current needs were and what they would likely to be in the future. Together, we created an action plan that centred around digital print.”

The first step of the action plan was education. Mellström and his team participated in a number of training modules through Canon’s Essential Business Builder Program, including workshops, information guides and business mentoring, to help them sell and market digital print including variable data printing.

“This was a significant moment; we truly realised the business opportunities that a well-implemented digital print service offered us,” reflects Mellström. “It could kick start our new customer proposition and eventually be put it at the forefront of everything that we do.”

The next step was to visit Ipex 2010 at the NEC in Birmingham, England. Travelling with his contact from Canon Sweden, Mellström was confident he had identified the right technology and business partner to help EO Grafiska reposition itself in the market.

He returned to Sweden having approved a comprehensive package of solutions from Canon, including six new imagePRESS units, Print Shop Mail and Direct Smile marketing software. “We were shown how each solution would fit our exact business plan, and it made sense to purchase everything from the same supplier that we trusted,” he explains. “The whole deal would enable us to efficiently produce short-run colour and monochrome volumes on-demand, while offering personalised communications in print and, significantly, via digital media with the new software.”

Achievements

In the past five years, EO Grafiska has become almost unrecognisable. The family-run business has been transformed from a traditional offset outfit into a modern marketing and communications enterprise. “The transition hasn’t been easy or quick – we never expected it to be – but it’s been consistent and the benefits have been far-reaching,” adds Mellström. “The previous spiralling overheads from the digital print side of the business have been dramatically reduced; we’ve saved nearly €900,000 in production costs in five years.”

While the cost-cutting exercise was a core focus, EO Grafiska’s accomplishments do not end there. Through its on-going partnership with Canon to fine-tune its digital print-centric business model, the company has entered new markets by providing a multi-channel communications and cross media service.

“This evolution enables us to approach customer campaigns in effective new ways,” elaborates Mellström. “For instance, with the support of Canon and DirectSmile software, we created a successful cross-media campaign for a heating pump supplier, VUAB, to help them engage with previous customers. It started with a direct mail campaign that led the recipient to a personalised landing page that requested them to provide feedback to VUAB so that they could update their prospectuses in real-time. They enjoyed a huge increase in sales on the back of that campaign.”

Encouraged by its clients’ responses to its new business model, EO Grafiska continues to consult with Canon on other ways to improve and diversify its service offering – including attendance at customer events such as Canon For Business 2014 in Munich. “A very valuable experience; we gained great insight into multiple business areas that are relevant to the communications market, as well as speaking to other like-minded customers,” recalls Mellström.

Digital printing is now a powerful revenue stream for EO Grafiska, contributing 40 per cent to the company’s turnover. Its impressive turnaround and exploration of personalisation and digital marketing has put the company back on the map and inspired further investments in a number of Canon’s VarioPrint machine and imagePROGRAF wide format devices between 2013 and 2015.

We’re in great shape now, and Canon has played an important role in helping us reach that stage, concludes Mellström.

We even have other companies from across Scandinavia coming to visit us to discuss our business approach. Their interest validates what we’re doing and we use it as inspiration to push ourselves even further.
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