PrintStop and printing.com has evolved over the years. Reading through the history of the franchise and company it is evident that things change over time to reflect the current market, the industry and of course, the customer.

PrintStop is a name you are familiar with, a name that is synonymous with well priced, fast turnaround, full colour printing. We are New Zealand’s only national retail printing chain, with 50 locally owned and operated franchises spread across the country.

This year we will continue to bring you everything you love about PrintStop, plus a whole lot more! We’ll be expanding the service and products we currently provide for you so watch out for some exciting new initiatives in the months ahead.

We live in a world of constant change, where things seldom stay the same, and we believe that’s what makes our world so wonderful.  That’s why we’re excited to be sharing our news about our future, where we will be staying the same in so many ways, but we’ll have a new name and be even better than before!

SAME great people

SAME high quality

SAME handy locations

SAME friendly service and

SAME delivery promise …

with a NEW name!

From 1 April 2011 it will be business as usual at PrintStop, but we’ll be called nz.printing.com. That’s the name that’s been powering PrintStop from behind the scenes for a number of years and also operates in England, Europe, USA and Australia. Through our ongoing association with printing.com we’ll be able to bring you more new products and other innovations that are already proving to be a huge hit in the global marketplace.

What is a brand?

A logo? Corporate colours? Stationery?

A brand is all of these and much more, a brand is everything from a customer’s perception of who you are, to the quality, the look, customer care, retail and web look, the voice of communication and more.

The relationship between consumer and brand is often emotional rather than rational.  Branding facilitates memory recall, thus contributing to preferred selection and customer loyalty.

Why bother changing our name?

Printingdotcom (PDC) are an established, progressive retail print UK based company who have “powered” PrintStop for the last five years.

We are going global – but remaining locally owned, future proofing ourselves and our customers with new initiatives, like on-line ordering, digital asset store and customer templates.

PrintStop, New Zealand’s leading printing franchise network, has formalised its strategic partnership with printing.com to bring even more quality print services to small and medium sized businesses.

Today (1 April 2011) PrintStop rebrands to printing.com as part of its partnership with the UK-based global network of the same name.  The partnership provides the New Zealand franchise network with access to an international network of resources, expertise and collateral.

PrintStop CEO Steve Messenger says PrintStop stores around the country can now offer an even wider range of high quality print services that have traditionally been priced out of the reach of small and medium businesses.

“Small businesses want the same high quality print services as big companies but historically they haven’t been able to afford the same level as those with bigger budgets and volumes,” says Steve Messenger.

“We’ve changed that by making high quality print services readily available to all businesses without the high costs for setup and project management that have traditionally been associated with large volume print clients.”

Research into the New Zealand print industry by PrintNZ found one of the key motivators forming the print buyer’s perception is the interaction the buyer has with individual printers and print suppliers, who the buyers consider to be the ‘face’ of the industry.

Lisa Gembitsky, General Manager of Konfident Kidz, has been utilising PrintStop’s services for over three years and is excited by the network’s latest initiative.

“We run an anti-bullying and interactive confidence building programme for school children and the team at PrintStop has been a huge part in making a difference to this company,” says Lisa Gembitsky.

“They got us started by printing our very first workbooks and business cards, and they made it so easy for us. And they meet some of the tightest deadlines!  Really, if it wasn’t for PrintStop’s help and ongoing support from the awesome team, Konfident Kidz certainly would not have helped over 2000 students so far!”

PrintStop’s strategic partnership with printing.com will enable the network of franchisees throughout New Zealand to focus on further developing the consultative-led approach that is the essence of the PrintStop model.

“Service is the key differential and our nationwide local presence enables us to develop more strategic client relationships through consultation to strengthen loyalty and it provides the ability to offer a marketing solution, not just print services,” says CEO Steve Messenger.

“It’s all about service which is inherently linked to quality and brand perception.  We operate with the ethos of putting local service backed by the benefits of access to an international network at the heart of our business.”

The same values form the basis of the printing.com model and the company has traditionally maintained a strong network of client-facing account managers which has served it well in building more strategic relationships to strengthen loyalty and attract new clients.  “Our partnership with printing.com means we’ve become a classic example of ‘glocalisation’, where we’re backed by an international organisation driving development and technology advances and upgrades which are filtered through the system to our people on the street at the forefront of the customer relationship.”

“Changing the network name to printing.com only brings the alignment closer and includes us as part of a global network dedicated to making our businesses – and those of our customers – even better!”

Additional benefits for the New Zealand franchise network include access to international design and marketing professionals providing collateral and resources to help franchisees and in turn help customers market their businesses better.

“printing.com also provides a lot of support for targeted marketing campaigns that can be measured, monitored, recorded and fed back into the business development loop.  This way we can retain and further develop sustainable demand and our competitive edge in New Zealand by continuing to deliver consistently high quality.”

“One more thing – if you’re searching online for print services and you ‘google it’ we like the fact that we now have the added advantage of our new name so we will be even easier to find.  Currently the global website is ranked 13th in the world for website traffic in the printing category.”