How AlphaGraphics reinvented itself in just 2 years to reverse declining sales

Recommended reading:  Carol Tice’s 14-September-2012 post on Forbes.com, entitled “How to Grow Your Business -- When Your Whole Industry is Dying”.  It describes how the 41-year-old printing franchise AlphaGraphics has successfully turned its declining financial position around in only two years by reinventing itself from simple print and copy shop to new-media marketing services provider.  According to Forbes, a typical AlphaGraphics store now brings in $1 million in annual revenue, in contrast to industry averages of $500,000-$900,000.

The AlphaGraphics Web site reports that:

-       The company originated in Tuscon, Arizona, but since 2001 they have been headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah.

-       They were the first U.S. printing franchise to expand internationally, and

-       AlphaGraphics currently has 270+ independently owned and operated franchises located in the in the United States, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom.

They add that:  “AlphaGraphics has formed an alliance with Print Three of Canada, ensuring consistent, quality service for customers throughout North America.”  No further practical details on how the alliance operates appear on either franchise’s Web site.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/caroltice/2012/09/14/how-to-grow-your-business-in-a-dying-industry/

http://www.alphagraphics.com/about_us

http://www.printthree.com/news/10/108/AlphaGraphics-Inc-and-Print-Three-Franchising-Corporation-Announce-Strategic-Cross-Border-Marketing-Alliance/d,Press%20Releases/

Elaborate new Campbell’s campaign vaunts Andy Warhol and the "Art of Soup"

In 1962 Pop artist Andy Warhol’s first solo exhibition in Los Angeles immortalized the Campbell’s soup can and turned Warhol into an overnight sensation.  This fall, 50 years later, the Campbell Soup Company is returning the favour by launching four different limited-edition Warhol-inspired tomato soup cans at Target chain stores in the U.S.A.

Adweek notes:  "The cans, produced with the approval of (and a license from) The Andy Warhol Foundation, will be sold exclusively at Target, for 75 cents each, starting Sept. 2.” Simultaneously, Campbell's is also sponsoring “Regarding Warhol: Sixty Artists, Fifty Years”, an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York that opens to the public on September 18^th, and plans to launch a Facebook app that turns users’ photos into Warholesque portraits as part of its month-long on-line “Art of Soup” celebrations.

More details on the company’s commercial campaign can be found at:

http://www.juxtapoz.com/Current/campbells-soup-limited-edition-andy-warhol-soup

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1b4f03d6-f5b0-11e1-bf76-00144feabdc0.html#axzz25bgjRNIY

http://www.printaction.com/News/20120904-warhol-campbells.html

http://www.facebook.com/campbellscondensedsoup

For links to the Pop art world, try:

http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2012/regarding-warhol

http://www.christies.com/features/2010-october-andy-warhol-campbells-soup-can-tomato-1022-1.aspx

http://www.albrightknox.org/collection/collection-highlights/piece:100-cans/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=C0L-6JWadDA

More evidence of flourishing in-plants

Further to my last post, more in-plant news from south of the border (meaning the Canadian border) includes a recent resurgence from the brink of extinction by the Association of College and University Printers (ACUP).  Their late-April conference in Pennsylvania attracted nearly 100 higher-ed in-plant managers from all over the U.S.A., as well as from Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., and Canada. 

http://www.inplantgraphics.com/article/acup-2012-was-a-huge-success-in-harrisburg-pa-with-100-in-plant-managers/1#

And recently in British Columbia, the in-house print facility of Simon Fraser University, called Document Solutions (or “Docsol” in campus lingo), installed an HP Indigo 7500 press, rated for a monthly production of up to 3.5-million colour pages or 6.5-million monochrome pages.  The academic in-plant provides marketing collateral and printed materials for an organization comprising an estimated 35,000 students, 950 faculty, and related services.  The university's main campus is in Burnaby (about 20 km from Vancouver), with satellite campuses in Vancouver and Surrey.

Lilian Ding, Director of Document Solutions, told PrintAction they chose the HP Indigo 7500 to help them lower operating costs while providing the colour, quality, and consistency their customers require.  Since acquiring the machine, Ding also reports an increase in project volumes because of the new versatility it supplies.  See further details at: 

http://www.printaction.com/News/20120828-sfu-indigo.html

University Health Network’s in-plant is even busier than I described

Sorry, I got the math wrong in the last paragraph of my June-2012 column for PrintAction about University Health Network (UHN)’s remarkably successful in-plant printing operation in Toronto, run by longtime manager Joe Carrelas.  
https://www.box.net/s/8zck29hd7by8drozefid

Joe just e-mailed me to say that, although he liked the article, the last paragraph incorrectly recorded the annual total produced by UHN’s copier fleet as 4,674,000 copies, whereas in fact this figure only represents the fleet’s quarterly output.

The fleet’s annual total would be 4 x 4,674,000 or 18,696,000 copies.

Adding this figure to the 13,000,000 yearly impressions produced by UHN’s print shop brings the organization’s annual total to a whopping 31,696,000 impressions.

So although my column was accurate when it said they were busy, it didn’t quantify the half of it.  PrintAction and I sincerely regret the error.

Also on the subject of in-plants, my search of the upcoming seminar program offered at the Graph Expo trade show (Chicago, 7-10 October 2012) turned up seven sessions of specific interest to in-plants.  They include “Empowered In-plants: Tell-All Success Stories from the Field”, a panel comprised of a “dream-team” of top in-plants chosen by their peers http://www.myprintresource.com/press_release/10745581/graph-expo-in-plant-panel-session-members-announced   

Readers wanting more details on Graph Expo seminars can conduct their own search at:  http://www.graphexpo.com/SessionsEvents/SeminarProgram.aspx

Gun enthusiast uses 3D printer to make working M16 assault rifle

In one of the latest dramatic developments in the series of experiments to uncover the capabilities of 3D printers, Michael Guslick, a firearm enthusiast who goes by the screen name HaveBlue, has printed and successfully fired part of an M16 assault rifle, using a decade-old Stratasys printer and materials costing between $30 and $50.  Sync.ca blogger Rhonda Callow reports the details she derived from a forum on the firearm-resource Web site AR15.com in her July-28th post, entitled "Oh great, now your friendly neighbourhood psycho can print his own guns".

 http://www.sync-blog.com/sync/2012/07/oh-great-now-your-friendly-neighbourhood-psycho-can-print-his-own-guns.html

Besides generating plenty of on-line discussion, both pro and con, Callow’s post provides an interesting link to Shapeways.com--a Web site enabling its members to sell products made by 3D printing, as well as learn how to design and make them.  
http://www.shapeways.com/

New museum exhibit uses wide-format printing + smartphones 2 recreate prehistoric world

A new dinosaur exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto) makes extensive use of wide-format printing and smartphones to recreate the prehistoric world.

Today’s e-news from PrintAction highlights the exhibit’s enormous scientifically accurate murals printed by Beyond Digital Imaging using HP's latex ink technology at:

http://www.printaction.com/News/20120724-bdi-rom.html

Reuters describes the augmented reality technology that museum visitors can access via a mobile app at:

http://lnkd.in/K7xryY

Remembering Lyman Henderson

       On June 22nd, the Canadian printing industry lost one of its greats, as 92-year-old Lyman Henderson passed away at his Toronto residence after a brief illness. 
       It always seemed to me that there was nothing Lyman enjoyed more than a new business challenge.  I remember that, whenever I would pose one to him, you could almost hear the gears whirring in his brain as he scanned his considerable intelligence for a solution--which he invariably provided.
       Obituaries and details on commemorations can be found at:
http://www.printaction.com/News/20120625-henderson-obit.html
http://balletnews.co.uk/the-national-ballet-of-canada-mourns-lyman-henderson-o-c/
       Lyman's own blog, Bedtime Stories for Grown Ups, including his final entry dated two days before his passing, can be found at:  
http://lymanhenderson.com/featured-stories/