Rotherham operation Route 1 Print sees web to print as a key vehicle for differentiating itself in the trade wide format printing business, with a nod towards a major European competitor.

Pixartprinting, the Italian web to print innovator that recently became 97% owned by Vistaprint for a cool €127 million, has turned heads in the industry with its software competence, eye-watering investment decisions, and pan-European ambitions that will now extend globally.

It has an admirer in Rotherham it seems also, where Route 1 Print, part of B2B point of sale and signage manufacturer Bluetree Design & Print, is expanding its wide format offering and selling it to the trade through a sophisticated web to print storefront that has been developed in-house. To be clear, Bluetree and its constituent parts – web to print trade arm Route 1 and the end user web to print operation InstantPrint – are a long way off the scale of Pixartprinting in every sense, but the aspiration to marry together a comprehensive wide format trade offering with the best possible web ordering technology is certainly recognisable.

The company has invested in a new HP Scitex FB10000, and while the scope of its wide format services is posters and roller banners at the moment, going forward, plans include exhibition pop-ups, Foamex, Corex and Dibond signs, and fixed specification point of sale items such as dump bins at competitive prices.

‘It’s like the Pixart offering and that’s something we would aspire to, that kind of range: totem displays, twist lock dispensers, et cetera,’ said channel manager Jack Wilmott.

It is the perspective on delivering trade wide format print through web to print that will give Route 1 its distinction however. It has recently rolled out the latest version of its site, which has been proven with InstantPrint already, and the aim is to add value for print resellers through the site, not to drive customers away from human interaction. This is a very important point for Route 1. It believes it can deliver real advantages for customers through its website, but if people want to talk to a customer service operative, then a full team is on hand to do so.

Mr Wilmott continued: ‘The website is a key element of the service. It can reduce the time it takes to get print without reducing confidence in the quality of that print. Our approach is to add value through our development of the website. It’s not about being a web to print company because then we wouldn’t have to pay sales people; it’s being a web to print company because we see the potential of what we can do in terms of enhancing the buyer experience.’

He observed that not many people get into wide format through the web to print arena. ‘It seems to be done mostly on a face to face basis. No-one but Pixart has really done it like this.’

The in-house designed storefront is linked to Enfocus Switch for prepress functions and workflow automation. The online proofing system, already honed at InstantPrint, looks to be a winner. ‘You don’t have to risk sending a job to print without seeing what it looks like, and you also don’t have to wait 24 hours for someone to get a proof back to you. You upload your files, it takes three minutes to preflight, and it delivers back three options in terms of what you want to send to print. That gives customers a lot of confidence. Some companies will charge extra for a PDF proof, but we see this as a win-win. It adds to our efficiency and it does add value to the customer,’ he explained.

Tracking orders should be easier over the website too, and Route 1 is putting a lot of effort into making this easier for customers to do online instead of phoning or emailing and waiting for a response. None of this means that customers cannot phone and talk to a member of the customer service team though.

There is another idea too, designed to help print resellers sell to their customers: unbranded brochures. ‘It’s giving the sellers the tools to sell on,’ said Mr Wilmott. ‘An instant copy shop might be doing flyers for a customer, but if we can provide the copy shop with an unbranded brochure of extra items that they can pass onto their customer, the customer might say: actually, those roll banner stands also look quite impressive for an exhibition.’

Added value, it seems, can still be as useful in the traditional world as in the electronic one.