In December 2015, the parent company Vistaprint Cimpress announced plans to buy German online printing site WIRmachenDRUCK,.Vistaprint caused great concern to the industry for many years has been the printing industry automation benchmark, and its parent company Cimpress is also considering the use of two main strategies will enhance the future development to a new level. Its strategy and the view is very interesting. After the acquisition, foreign media interview with Cimpress CEO Robert - Kean, through this article, you will learn Cimpress Strategic planning and development plans of the company more, these plans might be slightly confusing printing provides a new inspiration. Chinese business
The ecological system through the acquisition of the built to achieve mass customization＂
Q in my opinion, you recently for the acquisition of WIRmachenDRUCK is very interesting. I＇m sure there are many other choices, but why choose it?
A in the past 18 months, we have carried out a series of acquisitions, but two of the largest is WIRmachenDRUCK from Germany and Exaprint. from France of the two companies in the annual income of more than $one hundred million, all orders almost entirely by more than 150 production partners abroad to complete. We are devoted to the two the company is because they can in the fierce competition of the European network printing market in the network mode and talent shows itself, and build our vision for the future of fit. As we announced 18 months ago that we are building a will The back-end production supply chain with many different partners or distributors face customers linked up ecological software platform. It may be that some of the front and back of the supplier from the Cimpress, but not the majority.
Q you do business in Vistaprint on the ability of investment, this is a very interesting strategy. Whether you are intended for the traditional production of your new opportunities?
On the contrary A.Cimpress has experienced external similar to the flyers, postcards in the past fifteen years, the business name card migration to the high-speed on-line printing stage. Although an important part of these products is still our business, but we firmly believe that the development of other products of ＂mass customization＂ will bring greater growth.
Q please describe it in detail.
A first, transfer to the ＂mass customization＂ products are those with printed standard format, especially those of terminal customers can through their own templates to generate something. ＂Mass customization＂ is not popularized because it increases the complexity of the product.
For example, for a standard 16 page format for 8.5x11 inch magazine added a folding or organ, customers need a oval products, and the complexity of these operations is beyond the scope of network printing standardization, so there will be no ＂mass customization＂. But we firmly believe that if we construct a system for ecological production and client is large enough, can solve this problem.
＂Mass customization＂ in the future will enter the stage of the long tail
Q according to your recent financial statements, you define ＂mass customization＂is: ＂with reliability, mass production quality, physical product cost and not to lose the capacity of small batch order personalized.＂could you explain in detail?
A in the traditional custom fields, each individual orders are usually through the concept, the launch of tenders, production debugging equipment, to complete the final delivery of logistics value chain. Every step is done in the traditional manufacturing environment with customization mode. If you have a large demand for a product is the high cost of preparing and nothing to be feared, such as toothpaste or mobile phone and car parts, the preparation cost is only a little part of the whole scheme. But if appear in small batch customized form, the preparation costs will be allocated to individual products. It is also known to the printing of 10000 copies Offset printing brochures than 5000 high prices will not be too much, because in this process, the overall preparation time increased by only a very small part. ＂Mass customization＂ to solve the small quantities of customized orders to production price is reasonable, but not suitable for small orders.
Can Q for example.
Similar to the A cup, name card, leaflets, photo book products such as long before can achieve ＂mass customization＂production order degree, because millions of customers of these products can be used in standard format, plus the power automation system to complete the massive orders. Last year in the business of Vistaprint, we deal with more than 18 million orders, the average of each order contains at least two more products. The products are rough estimate of the 50 million preparation. For this massive application, only the vertical integration and automatic line to ensure the efficient completion of the product.
But about the future, we believe that the ＂mass customization＂ will enter the long tail stage. Such as restaurants use printed Logo oval beer mat, which is a traditional custom products. But in the future, will produce the demand side and the mass client together through the Internet, this kind of product can also enter ＂mass customization era, not only limited to the production of products and standard square cups.
