Less than two years after setting up the Graph-Pak equipment supply agency managing director Tom Ralph is set to expand the business into manufacturing and consumables.
Two years ago when the giant Edward Keller company decided to move away from capital equipment supplies in its graphics business and more into consumables and new business one of its young managers, Tom Ralph, in the tradition of entrepreneurs everywhere, saw an opportunity to continue to supply the market with what was a first class product range, but from the position of nimble footed new agency,. Ralph says, "Although the equipment that Keller was supplying was first class the customers sometimes felt that they were a small part of a mighty big operation. The benefit I saw in starting my own company when it decided to pull out of parts of the capital equipment was that the customers would still receive the best in class equipment, but with a supplier that was totally focused on them."
That total focus of course comes because Ralph mortgaged his family house to get the business going, and with that mortgage, and a wife, and two young children to feed, the motivation to service customers correctly is massive. Ralph certainly had the experience, six years with Keller on the supply side was preceded by a decade and a half at Hannanprint, so ensuring he knew both sides of the fence, and he has a long history of international and local university training to help with running the business.
When Keller decided it was going to pull out of equipment Ralph didn't hang around waiting for a package, he set up Graph-Pak, and Keller gave the new company its blessing for most of the equipment, and with a handful of former colleagues the new business was established, first in Brisbane, as that was where Ralph was living at the time, but a year later he decided to move headquarters down to Sydney. Ralph says, "To serve the market effectively I think our type of business has to have its head office based in Sydney or Melbourne, with branches in all the other states."
Ralph looks after the sales and the business teams himself, liaising daily with the different state representatives, while well known industry name Michael Tims is responsible for the company's engineering business, its installations, service and engineering teams around the country. Today Graph-Pak has sales staff and engineers in every state in the country .
Originally Ralph imagined having two or three agencies, but it turned out virtually all of Keller's principals wanted to go with the new kid on the block, as he and his colleagues had the experience and the market knowledge. Ralph says, "I virtually lived on aeroplanes that first six months, as I personally went to every principal to make sure we were on a good footing."
Now in addition to supplying equipment Ralph is intending to take Graph-Pak into two new areas; consumables and manufacturing. Ralph says, "Actually these are not really my great ideas, but come as responses to my customers. They like dealing with Graph-Pak, and will make suggestions, such as "why don't you get into laminating film'', and it takes off from there." Graph-Pak is of course the Oceania supplier for Autobond, who manufacture the industry's benchmarks in laminating equipment.
The first consumables line has already been signed up, Ralph says, "It is laminating film that is manufactured in Korea and offers the highest standards we could find, we did extensive tests and trials on various suppliers over 12 months before making our selection.
The customer base for Graph-Pak is commercial web and sheetfed printers, packaging printers, label printers, paper converters and paper and board mills.
Ralph says he is 'surprised' by how well the business has developed since it began, he says, "Really I'm on cloud nine. The customers have been tremendously supportive, as they have appreciated our commitment to them, we have certainly had our share of bad times too, but these days I normally can sleep through the night ok."
"We are building long term relationships, most things aren't too much trouble for us, and I am keen for our company to really communicate well and to know everything that is going good or bad, there is no way I want the managing director of a customer phoning me with a problem I don't know about, it should be, and has always been, the other way around, we are on the ball, and that is part of the reason for our growing relationships with our customers."
Graph-Pak's growth is not supersonic, but it is consistent with its targets and KPI's he says, "Every quarter we are meeting or exceeding our targets. It's not by 500 per cent, but it shows that we are on the right track, that we understand the market, and that we are meeting a requirement. This all adds up to solid business development, we are intending to offer customers a service and standard that they will be more than satisfied with , we are not into the hit and run sales approach and we intend to be around for a very long time", says Ralph.
In addition to the move into consumables Graph Pak will soon be manufacturing its own products, in partnership with Melbourne company TRS. Ralph says, "There are certain types of equipment that really lend themselves to be manufactured here, because we can add specific Australian market knowledge. There is also the issue that the main sources of equipment are Europe and the US and that may mean a price barrier to some companies simply because of fluctuating exchange rates, there's also China, and not everyone is comfortable buying Chinese manufactured equipment so the other alternative is obvious - we will build it here if feasible."
All in all a dynamic result for the fledgling company, which to its customers at least has become a well established business over the last two years. While Graph-Pak will never grow to the size of an Edward Keller style company, its strength, flexibility and commitment are certainly winning the customers.
