A Dutch online printing franchise has expanded to Australia and New Zealand via a partnership agreement forged with SMP Solutions.
As ProPrint explains, Happyprinting was founded in The Netherlands in 2017, with the vision of creating “a global network of printers, based on one brand, one platform, and local printing partners.”
The franchise already has a partnership deal in place with South Korean-based Yon-Art Printing, and now it is laying new foundations down under.
“There is a great personal and cultural fit with the people of SMP Solutions. We both see great potential to make ordering print disruptively easy, down under,” stated Happyprinting co-founder and CTO, Jean-Pierre Meijer.
SMP Solutions’ CEO Simon Murray, said, “I am excited to be part of the Happyprinting team. These guys created a cutting edge online printing platform and a lovely brand. There is huge value in joining the global Happyprinting network, sharing knowledge and technology. It allows us to act fast and run an efficient online printing business in both Australia and New Zealand”.
Revealing the motivation behind the franchise’s spread to the Antipodes, Happyprinting’s CEO and co-founder Sven Rusticus explained that the printing industry represents a market size of $8 billion (€6.9 billion) for Australia and $1 billion (€873.5 million) for New Zealand. There is also a gap in the market for the franchise to take advantage of, as “ordering via the internet is relatively underdeveloped”, though “internet penetration is high” and “e-commerce logistics performances are reliable”.
“There is a tremendous opportunity in those markets”, Rusticus said, adding, “This is only the start of our international adventure. We are now talking to printing partners in more than twenty countries and the fact that we have registered over fifty country domain names represents our global ambition”.
