I want you to imagine you are planning a road trip. In fact, let’s make it a road trip on a bus to your favorite botanical garden. Now think about how expensive it would be if you were the only one leasing the bus. Would it change your mind about using the bus? What if you could lessen the cost by getting your garden buddies together to share the cost of the bus? Sounds more appealing doesn’t it?
Grouping plant tag print runs for themes and common die shapes can have an impact on pricing similar to the bus analogy above. If you were to print a small quantity by yourself, it would be very costly. If you are able to get fellow nurseries together and group your orders, the pricing is much lower, saving everyone money.
Let’s say Williams Nursery, a small IGC in Akron, OH, is wanting to start a unique program geared at promoting hometown favorite plants. For this program they want to use a new tag design. In the first year of this program, the quantities will be small. If the program is successful, it will expand in the following years. But for now, producing the small number of tags for the first year would be very expensive.
Down the road in Canton, OH there is larger wholesale nursery. Let’s call them Midwest Wholesale. They grow and distribute plants regionally to local IGC’s. For years they have used the same common die shape for their heat resistant plants tag and they print thousands each year.
This is where knowing your neighbor can pay off. Williams Nursery and Midwest Wholesale have an opportunity here to mutually benefit from group pricing. Williams Nursery could create their own deer resistant design that fits the Midwest Wholesale die shape and have it added to their large print runs. Thus reducing the amount they would pay for each tag since they will be included in such a large print run. Midwest Wholesale in turn benefits from increasing the quantities and receiving lower pricing due to volume.
For this principle to work, everyone involved needs to agree on (and meet) two very important deadlines. One, there needs to be a concrete due date for all orders. And two, a common shipping date must be established. If orders are turned in late, the shipping date will then move out. Think about it using the bus example above. If the bus is scheduled to leave at a specific time and someone is late, the whole bus is held up and everyone is delayed in getting to their final destination. Similarly, if one order is late, everyone’s tag order could be delayed.
Grouping tag runs can be very efficient and cost effective if everyone participates with the same goals in mind. Feel free to contact me for more information on how to save money by grouping and gathering orders.
About the author: Angie Spratt is a Senior Client Manager at Horticultural Marketing and Printing. She has been with the company for 15 years as a horticultural client manager and has 25 years of experience in the printing industry. You can reach Angie at hortprinters@integracolor.com