Printing firm's exports lead to fields of gold

By Lesley Springall

What can small companies do to succeed in export markets? One such firm reckons it has at least some of the answers.

"It's a combination of our trust in older, but more specialised machinery and our relatively low running costs from being based in a rural area," said Graeme Hill, managing director or Goldfields Print of Paeroa, whose success was recognised earlier this year when it won a coveted Trade NZ export commendation.

Goldfields started in 1970 with just three people working in a rented corner of a warehouse. Today, it has grown to employ more than 30 people and has revenues of $3.2 million, with over 50 per cent from Australia.

That stage has not been reached because of the latest gadgetry. As Mr Hill says himself, most sales by the small printing company are from simple lines, like docket and order books for hotels and restaurants.

However, Goldfields did not reach this stage without a few major setbacks.

The first of these was in the early 1980s when Pye electronics, its key customer and reason for being based in Paeroa in the first place, was sold to Philips.

Mr Hill said: "Pye had approached us to establish a printing company to produce circular labels for the records it was producing at its new factory in Paeroa.

"We did this and then quickly expanded alongside the growing record business, producing full colour, gloss sleeves for record albums. But this led us to becoming too big a printer with too much capability for a rural area."

So when Philips closed the Pye electronics factory in Paeroa and moved its printing requirements closer to its own factory in Wellington, Goldfields was left with a choice.

"We had a few commercial printing clients but not enough to sustain us and we could have given up at that time, or opened somewhere else, but we wanted to stay in Paeroa."

That was when the company realised the advantages it gained from its rural location - low manufacturing costs and a stable and ample workforce - which combined with the technology it already had, made it a very cost effective player in the marketplace.

This was further supported by its close proximity to two major ports, which all combined to make the export market an attractive option.

To help realise this opportunity, Goldfields merged with another New Zealand printing firm which had a foothold in Australia. But this solution, described as a "marriage in hell" by Mr Hill, led to its second major setback.

"It took us five years to extricate ourselves from that company, which went broke. We bought back our part again and suddenly had to learn about marketing in Australia.

"It was a steep learning curve and I was going to Australia about a dozen times a year trying to make it work. I had a contact in most states that was selling other stationery items and I set about appointing them as agents and then working with each of them in turn to establish a market in each state."

Today, with $1.6 million in exports and growth rates of 10 to 15 per cent a year, the company is manufacturing in bulk, shipping a 20ft container every two weeks.

It has recently opened it first overseas office in Perth and is continually reviewing its marketing position. With further growth envisaged, Goldfields is working with Trade NZ to identify other target export markets.

"Trade NZ has been looking at this for us for about 12 months. The preliminary background work and market research has been done and we hope to make a decision
in the next two to three weeks when we get the final report.

"It is probably between South Africa and Canada, which both look encouraging. But it's a long haul and we are taking a cautious approach by doing all our homework in New Zealand before we actually make any decisions.

"The success in Goldfields as it stands today is that we've kept the strategy of lean, mean, small and hungry which benefits our export side, but we've also maintained an active side in the commercial field so that we are not overly reliant on either," Mr Hill said.

So with good old fashioned tenacity and the knowledge to recognise the advantages that may already be in place, other smaller, rurally-based companies may be encouraged to take the plunge overseas.