If life teaches you anything, it’s that no matter what plans you make, fate sometimes has other things in store. For James Sultana, owner of NSW-based sign and display company Grand Print Services, plans for a relaxing life on the coast morphed into a busy new business that now supplies customers around Australia.
There were no grand career aspirations behind James Sultana’s decision to move to the NSW South Coast from Sydney. Rather, he and his wife saw it as an opportunity to spend extra time with their young family in a more relaxed environment.
But the best laid plans are apt to go astray, as they say – and four years later, James is instead working hard to take his business, Grand Print, to the next stage, with a new factory in Gerringong and a double investment in equipment from Océ Australia.
The move – which will see the company install a top-of-the-range Arizona 1380XT flatbed printer and a ProCut 3200L digital cutting system – is a significant leap for Grand Print, which started with a chance encounter soon after the family’s move.
“I was looking for work and a connection here offered me some signage installation management work” James explains. “With my background in the sign and display industry, project managing installations and expos, it seemed like good work to pick up while I looked for something more permanent.”
Pretty soon, that ‘stop gap’ became almost a full-time occupation, and his clients started to ask for a full ‘turn key solution’
“I had no plans to get back into production, and starting a business was the furthest thing from my mind…but eventually I found a niche in the market to provide a very high level of service for the entire production process, as opposed to just supplying print or just managing the install,” he explains.
For a while, outsourcing the print sufficed, but by late last year, it became apparent that the convenience and control of his own manufacturing facilities would make life easier.
An initial investment in a roll-to-roll machine helped somewhat, but there was still an enormous amount of work that had to be sent out – or, alternatively, assembled manually in-house, like corflute signage, which involved a time-consuming process of printing decals, then mounting on the rollover table and manually trimming.
After doing some research – prioritising flexibility and reliability – he found the solution in the printer and cutter duo from Océ Australia.
“We had talked to our Océ BDM, Chris Bowden, about their solutions, and we ended up taking a trip to Melbourne to the company’s new Customer Experience Centre, where we were able to see both machines in action,” James explains.
“Chris worked with us to really understand our business requirements and recommend a solution which would answer those needs – and the new workflow from Océ makes the whole solution seamless.”
As a key innovation centre for Canon, a global leader in consumer and professional imaging, Océ invests heavily in R&D. The new Arizona 1300 range draws on more than a decade of flatbed development to provide the sign and display market with a printer which is not only more versatile than competitors, but also more productive.
As well as handling an impressively wide range of media, the high-quality printer’s application versatility is enhanced with innovations like Touchstone software which enables ‘2.5D’ print for raised and textured surfaces, and LED curing – which not only speeds make ready, but also enables the use of Greenguard-certified LED-UV ink – while Arizona Xpert job preparation software turbo-charges productivity.
“The flatbed capacity will be a game-changer for us, hugely expanding the range of work we can handle and increasing options for our clients, and I’m really excited about the range of products and print finishes it will allow us to produce,” James says.
The ProCut 3200L – from the Océ range of digital cutters, can cut, mill, polish and engrave on media up to 60mm in depth. The ProCut pairs with the Arizona for seamless large format workflow – from prepress to finishing. Providing automation and ease of use, making it the perfect finishing companion for this flexible printer.
“The ProCut will be an amazing addition, increasing our accuracy and capacity to trim and finish both rigid and flexible products in-house and improving our productivity and profitability,” he adds. “And it’s so easy – we can just print directly onto whatever substrate we’re using, scan the barcode into the digital cutter, and we’re done!”
As well as giving James control over production by bringing a high percentage of jobs in-house, the dual investment also provides capacity for future growth and, together with the planned addition of some new staff resources, sets the stage to give him some much-needed time to reflect on his future business strategy and planning.
“I was talking to someone the other day about how busy I was at work, and they asked me if I really wanted to be spending long hours at the factory every day for the rest of my life. And of course, I don’t – having more time with my family was the reason we moved here in the first place,” he says.
“This new technology from Océ, backed by their technical expertise and local service support, will put me back in control of my future – and that’s a great feeling.”
