I was then asked to interview Stuart Latta, and subsequently write a story for a newsletter about new offices which were set to open in Hawick.
A digital printing shop is due to open in the Hawick area in a plan to bring advanced printing to smaller towns.
It will allow people to come in off the street with a disc and be able to get documents printed off on demand. This can take the form off posters, leaflets or big booklets.
Hawick is being used as somewhat of a guinea pig as in order to see how successful it will be. If it does prove to be successful then it could become a franchise or possibly develop into its own separate business.
The aim is to be able to serve the local customers for conventional print sales. And they feel that Hawick is the perfect place to try this. Hawick do not have anything that gives them the option of getting posters printed up for birthdays but this project will give the people of Hawick the opportunity to do this.
Another positive will be that it will give people who do not have the funds to get a book printed for instance for a local group or a hotel who are looking to advertise their business the chance to do this.
Stuart Latta will be in charge of getting the business up and running. He has been in the print business for 25 years meaning he knows what makes a good business and what doesn’t. This has ranged from origination to working on web presses.
“If we’re going to be anywhere, we are as well being on the high street to get punters in as they are passing the door. So that’s the reason for doing it. It’s going to offer print on demand with an extremely fast turnaround.
“I think it’s a really good idea. I think that there’s nothing like that in the Borders. What you have to be very mindful of is that it is not the city. You haven’t got the volume of say Edinburgh which has a population of around half a million where there is a demand for that. We are taking about the Borders, which has a population of around 100,000 spread over quite a large area who haven’t got anything like what we are taking over.
“We need to be quite pro active in the marketing campaign that we put out so people actually know that we are there and know the services that we provide. Therefore we need to have a fairly good strategy, whether this is advertising in the local press, signage on the back of busses. We need to get our name about for this to be a success.” He said.
They will be using the same digital press that is used at Summerhall. If this works then it could be limitless as to how far this could go. If it is successful then there are already plans to develop shops in Edinburgh and north of the Forth.
To start with they will have a staff of up to 5 but that could rise with the inclusion of sales people from the Borders. All staff are from the Hawick area meaning the community will know and be able to trust the staff and this new project.
The digital Bureau is capable of handling documents such as leaflets for a hotel and menu’s for restaurants meaning an increase in sales and profits for their businesses.
“We must reiterate that we are targeting the home user, someone who wouldn’t necessarily be looking to print something in the past but we want to give them that option. It doesn’t matter how big or small the job is we are here to help. They might be looking for, rather than running out 100 copies of a flier for their kids birthday party, they can come in and say can you do me a poster.” He said.
The shop that they are moving into has always been historically known as a photographer, were in the past you could go in and get your photos developed. This is a huge advantage because it gives it the perception of digital photography and a digital feel about the place
Mr Latta said: “We are already on to a winner with the shop. Now we need to make sure that the public know exactly what we do here and the only way to do that is through a proper marketing campaign.”
The best part of quarter of a million pound will be spent overall on the project with renovations and kitting the place out but Stuart has stressed that they are concentrating on the long-term.
“It’s a long term project. I mean the lease has been taken out for five years. The bulk of the work that will fund this will come through the litho sales with the customers that we already have. What we are aiming to do is to not only deal with the litho sales but also mop up the digital sales as well.”
This new shop will attempt to offer everything under one roof which will in time lead to digital bureaus being used country wide. However Stuart was keen to stress that it is not all about digitalisation. They will also offer a direct mail division, Solstice, litho sales. They will be working in close proximity to the Summerhall branches in Edinburgh and this means that they are not
“We can handle everything, all be it maybe not in the shop but we will be able to coordinate it in the shop and send it to our head office. It’s not going to be an autonomy down there, it will be a regional office.”
