It’s a jungle out there: How one Vancouver print shop is keeping up with its competitors

by carly_mchugh | 30 March 2023 5:33 pm

By Ginny Mumm

With all the recent economic challenges, and brands increasingly employing online marketing strategies, how can a traditional print shop manage to stay both relevant and profitable? One important way is by adopting the newest, most versatile digital printing technology. The latest wide-format digital printers offer higher print speeds and wider colour gamuts, both of which help keep specific shops top-of-mind for clients in today’s competitive environment.

Graphiczoo Printing Corporation in Vancouver has stayed on the cutting edge of print production since opening its doors in 1999. We asked the “zookeeper” himself, owner Wai Tsang, about how he is able to keep his shop successful and nimble through all the changes in the printing market.

What made you decide to start Graphiczoo?

Wai Tsang (WT): I’d previously worked at Electric Zoo, a local print and design company, which was a lot of fun to be a part of. It had a super-creative environment and offered innovative solutions that were unfortunately a bit ahead of their time. With the owners’ blessing, I borrowed part of the name for a new company, which I founded more than 23 years ago.

Is it really like a zoo?

WT: We do sometimes say we’re masters of “guerilla” graphics. I’m an art-school-trained designer and so is my employee Harold Quan, but it’s a fast-paced environment, so we typically don’t have time to do too much original design work. We’re a full-service shop with a one-to-one marketing approach. We like to take the time to talk with our customers to really understand what they want.

One of the things that has changed over the years is everyone wants their projects completed faster than ever. We often get files in at noon and send out the finished product by the end of the day. For us, these days, 48 hours is a long turnaround time, so we’ve had to adapt to keep up.

Where are you located and how is your shop set up?

WT: We’re in Vancouver, just at the tip of Yaletown. It’s a busy area, and we get a lot of foot traffic. We have a 195-m² (2,100-sf) shop with a reception area and customer service counter, and behind that is all our equipment. When customers walk in, they can see everything we’re able to do. We want clients and potential clients to understand our production process and see all the various projects we have going, unless of course a customer wants us to keep their work confidential.

We operate with two full-time employees and three part-time staffers. Harold and I are also trade-school graduates, so we’re each capable of operating the equipment and overseeing all the projects we have going at one time.

What types of equipment do you have on hand?

WT: We’ve always had a wide-format digital printer in the shop. We had an Encad printer back in the day, which we used primarily for architecture work. Later, we bought our first Roland DG printer/cutter, a SOLJET. We still have the SOLJET, and late last year, we added a 1,371.6-mm (54-in.) TrueVIS VG3-540 wide-format printer/cutter. We have a few Xerox machines, a Ricoh, and an Afinia Memjet roll label printer, along with a multitude of bindery options and lamination equipment. Whatever our customers need, we can usually provide it.

What role does wide-format digital printing play in your shop’s success?

WT: We use our wide-format printers every day. We run posters, window and wall graphics, decals, foam core and cut vinyl signage, backdrops, banners, and other types of graphics.

Throughout COVID, we helped retailers in our area by providing them with free floor graphics and safety stickers. Some of the shop owners would look at us funny and offer up pizza or other products in return, but I would tell them it wasn’t necessary—it was our way of helping out during an extremely challenging time.

What benefits have you seen from upgrading your wide-format printing technology?

WT: One major benefit is the expanded colour gamut. Our new printer’s gamut is so wide, we can hit almost any colour. We service other print shops that don’t have wide-format capability and we can run anything they need. Colour consistency between our digital printer’s production and their output from other devices is just not an issue. The new printer is also faster, which helps us to meet the tight deadlines we’re often working under.

We’ve benefited from having two printers on-site. Having the extra printing capacity really helps us when the shop gets busy.

Why is it important to have an expanded colour gamut?

WT: It’s great to be able to hit the greens and oranges easily. In fact, we actually had a customer tell us the new prints we gave him were too “orangey.” He liked the colour, but it was so vivid and realistic, it didn’t match his older collateral. We had to rerun it with a different colour profile. However, most of our customers are extremely pleased with the range we can provide and the ink’s overall vibrancy.

We’re currently running cyan, magenta, yellow, and black (CMYK), as well as orange, green, light black, and white ink, but we might change to magenta instead of white, as we’re not getting a lot of customers who need white ink. Having the option to make these changes is nice, too.

As your business has grown, which wide-format applications have you added?

WT: I’m trained by Avery to do wrapping. The most we do on vehicles right now is door panels, because we’d really need a clean indoor space to take on full or even partial wraps. However, we do provide door graphics, and of course, window, wall, and floor graphics for our clients.

What industries do you serve and what do you provide?

WT: We’ve always been focused on short-run, quick-turnaround projects. We’re a retail and wholesale full-service provider, so we work with a lot of other print shops, as well as local industries. We have a separate pricing scale for wholesale jobs, and we’ve enjoyed a good relationship with these clients.

On the retail side, we work with restaurants to print menus, posters, and QR codes they can stick on their tables. We serve local mining companies with investor relations posters, and we do work for conferences in the medical industry. Software companies ask us to print wall graphics, and we work with department stores and fashion boutiques that need window display backdrops, cut vinyl signage, stanchion post-and-panel signs, foam core signs, and directional signage. Vancouver also has a large film production industry, and we provide backdrops and signage for their sets. We even do a fair amount of PowerPoint posters for corporate clients and students.

Additionally, we serve walk-in customers. We have people who ask us for just one print, or up to 1,000. We have a stated minimum print requirement, but we don’t turn any customers away if they just need a few prints.

Are your clients mainly local or from across Canada? Do you have international clients?

WT: We typically deal with local companies. However, some of our clients have offices or distributors abroad and we send out their collateral as needed.

What advice would you give someone who is looking to buy a wide-format printer?

WT: First, I’d say it’s important to look for a trusted manufacturer with a good reputation for quality and service. I like buying from companies that have been in the industry for a long time and are likely to stay in business, because at some point you’ll need ink and critical parts.

The quality of the printed output is also critical. Your shop’s future depends on turning out excellent products that keep customers coming back for more. Be sure to run some test prints on media you use frequently, to see which printer produces the best quality.

Another consideration is versatility. Our inkjets are actually printer/cutters, which eliminates the need to have a separate cutting device in the shop. Plus, they can print on many different types of materials, such as paper, canvas, and all different types of vinyl, which makes it easy to say “yes” to a wider variety of projects.

What do you see for the future of Graphiczoo and its services?

WT: We hope to continue providing our clients with outstanding products and a high level of customer service. We’ve upgraded our production equipment, which helps us provide the increased colour range and production speed today’s customers are looking for. We have a great team in place, and we’re well set up for the future.

Anything else you would like to tell us?

WT: I love working in this industry. Every day is different, and I feel like I’ve been playing for the past 23 years. I firmly believe if you don’t enjoy your work, you won’t do it well. I’m lucky to have found work that I really enjoy.  

Ginny Mumm is a freelance consultant for digital inkjet printer/cutter provider Roland DGA. For more information, visit www.rolanddga.com.

Source URL: https://www.signmedia.ca/how-one-vancouver-print-shop-keeps-up-with-its-competitors/

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