Print Factory

July 7, 2023

Printing factories are specialized facilities where various printing processes take place to produce printed materials. Equipped with printing machinery, equipment, and skilled workers, these facilities handle tasks such as prepress preparation, printing, finishing, and packaging. They vary in size and capacity, ranging from small-scale operations to large-scale facilities capable of handling high-volume printing orders.

Printing factories may specialize in specific methods like offset printing, digital printing, screen printing, or flexography to meet customer requirements. They are producing a wide range of printed materials, including brochures, flyers, business cards, labels, packaging, and books. Quality control, adherence to printing standards, and timely delivery are paramount.

Setting up a print factory can involve significant costs, as it requires various investments in equipment, facilities, materials, and skilled labor. The exact cost can vary depending on the scale and scope of the print factory. Here are some areas that contribute to the cost of setting up a print factory:

  1. Equipment
  2. Facility
  3. Materials and Supplies
  4. Staffs and Workers
  5. Technology and Software

Setting up is one thing, maintaining the operation of a print factory is another. It requires ongoing expenses. These expenses include monthly costs for utilities, raw materials, equipment maintenance, labor wages, insurance, marketing, and other overhead expenses. To sustain and grow the business, increasing sales and maximizing production time are crucial. Keeping the production running at full capacity is essential for a print factory to maximize its output and revenue.

At the end of the day, you need sales, more sales!

Traditional print sales methods includes:

  1. Direct Sales: Dedicated sales teams engage with potential clients through activities like cold calling, trade shows, networking, and building relationships.
  2. Marketing and Advertising: Print factories invest in online and offline marketing efforts, including digital strategies like SEO, social media, and print ads in industry publications.
  3. Referrals: Satisfied clients refer print factories to others, leveraging positive word-of-mouth and reviews.
  4. Partnerships: Collaborations with print brokers, agencies, and designers expand the customer base and access shared resources.
  5. Online Presence: Maintaining a professional website and utilizing online platforms showcase capabilities and attract a wider audience.
  6. Customer Relationships: Providing excellent service, quality products, and meeting deadlines fosters long-term client relationships.

These proven sales approaches (especially through direct sales) enable print factories to generate new business and revenue for print businesses, it’s crucial to consider the disadvantages that come with relying on salespeople for business growth:

  1. Cost: Hiring and maintaining a sales team can be expensive. Salesmen often require a salary, commissions, benefits, and training, which can add to the overall costs of the business.
  2. Limited Reach: Salesmen typically have a limited reach and can only engage with a certain number of potential customers at a time. This can restrict the ability to reach a broader audience and expand the customer base.
  3. Time-Consuming: Engaging salesmen involves a significant investment of time and resources. It requires training, managing, and coordinating their activities, which can divert attention from other important aspects of the business.
  4. Dependency: Relying solely on salesmen for generating business can create a dependency on their performance. If the sales team is not effective or experiences turnover, it can impact the overall sales and growth of the print business.
  5. Inconsistent Results: Sales performance can vary among different salesmen. Some may be more successful than others, resulting in inconsistent sales results. This can make it challenging to forecast and plan for future business growth.
  6. Difficulty in Tracking ROI: It can be difficult to track the return on investment (ROI) of engaging salesmen. Measuring their effectiveness and attributing sales success to their efforts can be complex, making it challenging to evaluate the overall impact on the business.

The optimal approach is to digitize and automate the sales process, and PriceCal offers the perfect solution for achieving this goal.

PriceCal software is suitable for print factories because it offers several key benefits that streamline operations, optimize pricing, and enhance customer engagement. Here are some reasons why PriceCal is suitable for print factories:

  1. Automated Pricing: PriceCal automates pricing calculations based on various factors such as production costs, materials, and desired profit margins. This eliminates the need for manual calculations, saves time, and ensures accurate pricing for different print products.
  2. Customizable Pricing Rules: Print factories can define their own pricing rules and strategies within PriceCal, allowing them to set different pricing structures for different customers, quantities, or specific print options. This flexibility helps optimize pricing based on specific requirements and market conditions.
  3. Integration with Printing Processes: PriceCal can seamlessly integrate with the printing processes of a factory. It can retrieve pricing data from the factory’s internal systems or APIs, ensuring accurate and up-to-date pricing information is available within the software.
  4. Efficient Order Management: PriceCal provides a centralized dashboard where print factories can manage their orders, track production status, and communicate with customers. This streamlines the order management process and improves overall efficiency.
  5. Enhanced Customer Engagement: PriceCal offers features like live chat, file upload capabilities, and product customization options that enhance customer engagement. Print factories can interact with customers in real-time, gather necessary artwork or specifications, and provide a more personalized experience.
  6. Scalability and Growth Opportunities: PriceCal’s scalability allows print factories to handle a larger volume of orders and expand their customer base. The software’s automation capabilities enable factories to manage increased order volume without compromising on quality or efficiency.

Overall, PriceCal software empowers print factories by optimizing pricing, streamlining operations, and improving customer satisfaction. It helps print factories operate more efficiently, increase profitability, and stay competitive in the rapidly evolving print industry.

What’s the next step?

Get started today and see the immediate impact it can have on your profitability, efficiency, and overall success.

I understand your concerns about investing in PriceCal software and the risks involved. Let’s take an honest look at the situation. With PriceCal subscription starting at RM2000 per quarter, the risk is limited to losing that amount if it doesn’t meet your expectations.

However, when you consider the investments you’ve made in your printing business, such as hiring sales personnel and purchasing production equipment, the risks and costs are likely much higher.

Compared to these investments, PriceCal presents a safer bet. Developed by Printer (Expressprint) and proven to be effective, PriceCal offers a reliable solution tailored specifically for the printing industry. It streamlines your operations, optimizes pricing, and enhances customer engagement, all of which contribute to increased profitability and efficiency.

Moving forward…

  1. Explore the full functionality of PriceCal by visiting our Online Demo Store
  2. If you have any pre-sale questions, our team is here to assist you.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to revolutionize your print business with PriceCal.

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API

SC-Sheet calculates printing costs by determining the number of large sheets required based on material, size, printing method, and quantity.

For example, if a customer orders 1,000 business cards (89mm x 54mm), SC-Sheet calculates how many fit on a standard sheet, the total sheets needed, and the printing cost. Additional finishing like lamination or diecut is factored in separately, ensuring precise pricing while optimizing material usage and profitability.

What products are best suited for API?

Click on the products below to see API in action!

SC-Sheet

SC-Sheet calculates printing costs by determining the number of large sheets required based on material, size, printing method, and quantity.

For example, if a customer orders 1,000 business cards (89mm x 54mm), SC-Sheet calculates how many fit on a standard sheet, the total sheets needed, and the printing cost. Additional finishing like lamination or diecut is factored in separately, ensuring precise pricing while optimizing material usage and profitability.

What products are best suited for SC-Sheet?

Click on the products below to see SC-Sheet in action!

CSV

CSV is the most flexible way to manage and price products with fixed options or variations that don’t require dynamic calculations. Ideal for products with pre-set combinations of attributes like size, material, finish, and quantity, CSV enables
printers to create custom pricing tables in Excel (CSV format). Once the table is computed, simply upload it into PriceCal, and our Price Calculator will convert it into a systematic selection, generating the price based on the chosen options.

For instance, when calculating the price for a roll-up standee, printers can set up variables like type (e.g., Standard, Deluxe), size (Small, Medium, Large), print method (Digital, Offset), and quantity (e.g., 1, 5, 10). These variables are then organized in a CSV file, and upon upload, the system will automatically generate the correct pricing based on the selected options.

What products are best suited for CSV?

Click on the products below to see CSV in action!

  • Banners (Size, Material, Print Method, Quantity)
  • Packaging Boxes (Type, Size, Printing Method, Finishing)
  • Signage (Material, Size, Print Method, Quantity)
  • Stationery (Size, Material, Print Method, Quantity)
  • Promotional Products (Type, Design, Print Location, Quantity)

SC-Packaging

SC-Packaging is designed to handle pricing for packaging products such as boxes and cartons by calculating costs based on material, size, and finishing components. Through our strategic partnership with Pacdora, printers gain access
to a wide variety of box models, including double tuck boxes, auto-lock boxes, mailer boxes, and more.

This tool works similarly to SC-Sheet by calculating the open size of the selected box model and using the input dimensions to determine material usage, printing costs, and additional finishing. Components like gluing, die-cutting, and assembly costs can be seamlessly factored into the pricing

For example, if a customer orders 2,000 auto-lock boxes measuring 200mm x 150mm x 100mm, SC-Packaging will generate the total material required based on the box’s flat layout, calculate the printing and die-cutting costs, and include any finishing or assembly charges.

Exciting Benefits from Our Pacdora Partnership

Thanks to this collaboration, printers can now:

âś… Retrieve dielines instantly upon customer order.

✅ Offer customers access to Pacdora’s design studio to create and edit packaging
artwork effortlessly.

What products are best suited for SC-Packaging?

Click on the products below to see SC-Packaging in action!

SC-Item

SC-Item is designed for pricing single-item print customization, making it ideal for products like apparel, drinkware, and promotional merchandise. Unlike other pricing tools, SC-Item allows for flexible order quantities across different variations, such as sizes, colors, and print locations.

For example, in t-shirt printing, customers can choose to print on the front, back, or sleeves and place an order with specific quantity breakdowns—20 Large, 10 Small, 15 Medium, etc. SC-Item calculates the cost based on the print locations, total quantity, and any additional customization options like embroidery, heat transfer, or DTF printing.

What products are best suited for SC-Item?

Click on the products below to see SC-Item in action!

SC-Booklet

SC-Booklet is designed to generate precise pricing for multi-page products like booklets, catalogs, and magazines by calculating the material cost, printing method, and binding requirements. It determines the number of sheets required to fulfill an order based on the total number of pages, paper type, and sheet size. Additionally, SC-Booklet supports various binding methods, including saddle stitching and perfect binding, ensuring flexibility in product customization.

For example, if a customer orders 500 copies of a 32-page booklet, SC-Booklet calculates the number of large sheets needed based on the imposition layout. If the inner pages are printed on 150gsm matte paper and the cover on 300gsm glossy
paper, it determines how many sheets of each material are required and factors in the printing and finishing costs accordingly. The system also accommodates add-ons like spot UV, lamination, and special finishes.

What products are best suited for SC-Booklet?

Click on the products below to see SC-Booklet in action!

  • Corporate brochures
  • Annual reports
  • Event programs
  • Product catalogs
  • Training manuals
  • Magazines
  • Cookbooks
  • Portfolios
  • School yearbooks
  • Art books

SC-Area

SC-Area calculates printing costs based on the total print area (sq ft). When a user enters the length and width of the final print, SC-Area determines the total printable area and generates the cost accordingly. It also factors in additional finishing based on the perimeter, making it ideal for products that require eyelets, frames, or poles.

For example, if a customer orders a banner measuring 10ft x 3ft, SC-Area will calculate the total print area (30 sq ft) and generate the cost. If finishing options like eyelets every 2ft or a poles are added, SC-Area factors in these costs based on the perimeter. This tool is perfect for large-format prints such as banners, buntings, billboards, and signage, ensuring accurate pricing and seamless cost calculation.

What products are best suited for SC-Area?

Click on the products below to see SC-Area in action!

  • Magnetic signs
  • Metal / Aluminum signs
  • Die-cut stickers (large format)
  • PVC boards (Forex board prints)
  • Corflute / Corrugated plastic signs
  • Canvas prints
  • Tension fabric displays
  • Construction site signage
  • Directional & wayfinding signs
  • Table covers & table runners
  • Street pole banners
  • Retail window clings
  • Estate agent boards
  • Event standees & cutouts
  • Door signs & nameplates

PriceCal bags Best eCommerce Fulfilment Award 2023

PriceCal, conceptualized and brought to life by Welson and his dynamic team, emerged from a vision to revolutionize the print industry's approach to online sales....