Growing an Asia-Pacific label brand

Australia-based QLM is on a quest to become the Asia-Pacific region’s ‘most dynamic and service driven label manufacturing group’
Growing an Asia-Pacific label brand

While major print industry events such as Labelexpo Europe and drupa create an exciting buzz for those making the long journey to attend, back home in Australia aggressive and often unsustainable pricing, wage growth pressures and increasing raw material costs serve as stark reminders of the challenges facing the country’s label manufacturing industry.

How refreshing then to discover a down under label converting group achieving growth through diversification and not afraid of doing it a little differently.

Labels to life

From humble beginnings of a single hand-fed Heidelberg Golding press located in the basement of a suburban Brisbane family home producing business cards, Queensland Label Makers (QLM) has grown to become, in CEO Simon Pugh’s words, Asia Pacific’s ‘most dynamic and service driven label manufacturing group’. From its origins as the family business of Australian industry veterans David and Del Pugh, QLM now has key stakeholders in each of its current locations throughout Australia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Vietnam, including the Pughs’ children, Simon and Morag.

Founder Del Pugh, who died late last year, was a forthright voice in the local industry including a distinguished involvement in its recently renamed industry association LATMA, serving as Queensland branch president and more recently having lent her name to the Association’s annual Apprentice of the Year award. With staff numbers today of more 450, one can be excused for not realizing the extent of the company’s dramatic growth.

Simon Pugh describes QLM’s key point of difference as that of a premium boutique manufacturer.

‘QLM brings “labels to life” and we do that by discovering what our customers want to achieve and tailoring solutions to suit,’ he says.

The company has consistently invested in diverse and flexible print platforms, responding to changing market conditions with print capabilities that suit its growing client base. QLM currently incorporates over 80 print platforms ranging from flexo (Gallus and Mark Andy), letterpress (Lintec), offset (Heidelberg) and production quality digital (HP Indigo). The manufacturing platforms in each country in which it operates allow the group to provide diverse capabilities, including specialization for local markets or export, while also ensuring there are print synergies in each market for risk mitigation in the event of production demands or disaster recovery.

Growing pains

Changing market conditions in the early 2000s saw the company embark on its first offshore venture. Rather than merely outsourcing unprofitable work to overseas suppliers, the company wanted to participate in production and develop its network throughout the region.

After what was described as ‘a very involved process’, a joint venture was established in 2007 with a Malaysian manufacturer. While most new ventures are filled with challenges, QLM quickly discovered that its unique culture lent itself more to operating its own facility, which resulted in the company deciding to make a new acquisition and operate independently. Pugh describes such undertakings as ‘incredibly time consuming’, noting the requirement for key staff members to relocate with each acquisition to ensure organizational culture is maintained no matter where the location.

The development of key local personnel is also seen as integral to success.

‘We have always focused on ensuring the places where we operate are strong local markets first, but that they also bring something more to the table for us as a group,’ he emphasizes.

QLM has since gone on to make acquisitions in Bangladesh (2010), Vietnam (2012) and most recently in Malaysia, as well as of several key companies in Australia. These include Label Print (Brisbane), Self Adhesive Markings (Melbourne) and Alpha Labels (Sydney). Pugh says that their approach to acquisitions often belies the complexities faced in achieving success.

‘Saying it and making it a reality is a lot harder than it first appears,’ he stresses. ‘There have been lots of very difficult times and the nuances of doing business in Asia require a strong commitment and nerve.

‘With a little bit of luck and a whole lot of hard work it has started to pay dividends.’

QLM’s Asia Pacific Group COO Peter Woods tells L&L: ‘To achieve its targets, the company expects our people to care. Our values are care, consistency, accountability, respect, excellence and sustainability. Despite our growth over the years, we still run on a family business model and we go out of our way not to act like a multinational’.

As a result, Woods notes: ‘For us to be successful in today’s environment, our business acumen and competitiveness must be underpinned by a people-oriented philosophy.’

It is rare for a family-style management to succeed as spectacularly as has been the QLM Group’s track record in as unremitting an industry as labeling and packaging.

Simon Pugh adds that the group’s family-style management approach has meant each of its employees has contributed to the company’s history and achievements.

‘The success of QLM has been from the people we have working here,’ he says. This company mindset of a caring workforce is reinforced by projects undertaken in each region by QLM that combine dedicated compassion projects underpinned by a combination of paid and voluntary input from staff.

Diversification in key segments

According to the group’s marketing manager Lindsay Nutley, one of the major challenges when seeking footholds in growing markets is to remain focused on the specific targets and needs of each entity to ensure they remain successful. ‘QLM has broadened its offerings to become a key distributor of thermal and digital printers and finishing equipment as well as operating dedicated in-house thermal print bureaux specializing in Toshiba thermal printers’, he indicates.

‘We work very much on an ethos of selling products we use. That way we know how and why they add value. QLM’s acquisition in Vietnam has also provided the avenue to market premium folded product packaging and cartons there.

With HP Indigo offset press capabilities there, this includes the ability for personalization and customization in a way that is very much at the cutting edge for products in Asia Pacific.

‘Add to these the group’s graphic design services, materials handling and storage facilities, and we can claim our goal of “bringing labels to life” is well and truly on track to breathing life into the industry.’

Henry Mendelson

  • Oceania correspondent