08/2007
Surfing GIDUE Sales Australia

Mr. Roman Trzaskowski of Barom Nominees, the GIDUE agent for Australia and New Zealand, and Mr. Eddie Gulmen of Gulmen Engineering, founded GIDUE Sales Australia in early 2005. In agreement with GIDUE S.p.A., GIDUE Sales (Australia & New Zealand) Pty Ltd. was established. The company, based at Ashburton, Melbourne, has had great success in a short time and has already sold 10 presses in Australia and New Zealand. To strengthen its sales and technical staff, GIDUE Sales Australia recruited Mr. Tim Stafford as its General Manager in August 2007. Tim Stafford has extensive senior operational and sales management experience gained by over 20 years of work in the corrugated, labels and flexible packaging markets. He has worked for some of the largest label and corrugated converters in Australia and Europe. We asked Tim about his decision to join GIDUE Sales Australia. “GIDUE has grown a lot in recent years – particularly with its technology and innovation,” he replied. “It has tremendous growth opportunities and has set challenging goals. I believe the moment couldn’t have been more appropriate to join such a lively company, which is just what this growing market needs.” Mr. Trzaskowski added: “With Tim joining the staff, we can provide customers and prospects with what they need: advice, top-range assistance and consultancy.” The management team is now complete. Mr. Eddie Gulmen provides excellent field assistance to customers. Trained onsite by GIDUE, he is fully qualified to service all the press models in the GIDUE range.Mr. Claudio Piredda, GIDUE’s Area Manager for Australia and New Zealand visits the region on a regular basis and provides appropriate feedback to the Australian staff.

A short interview to the GIDUE Sales Australia team:
How do you assess this busy period in Australia and New Zealand?
Claudio Piredda: “GIDUE Sales Australia has developed close relationships in both Australia and New Zealand. We are seen as one of the most innovative companies in the narrow and mid-web printing industry. Our technological strengths are recognized everywhere. We rely on high quality products producing top-level quality labels and flexible packaging and we can count on excellent on-site service and spare parts delivery.”
Where to from now?
Roman Trzaskowski: “We have grown rapidly but no step was taken without a great deal of thought. After 18 successful months, we know we must continue to strengthen the company structure, listen to people in the field, take good care of customers, and pursue new possibilities diligently. We must work even harder to promote the GIDUE brand in the region.”
What are the areas where GIDUE Sales Australia is making additional efforts?
Roman: “Service and engineering. We must continue to deliver the right answers to customers’ questions, providing adequate assistance, either technical or commercial, whenever necessary.”
What is your assessment of the Australian and New Zealand markets?
Tim Stafford: “It is varied. We have a number of big customers and a large group of smaller companies. They are mostly privately-owned independent companies.”
What are the main market trends?
Tim: “The printing sector, like elsewhere in the world, is still growing and investing. For us, the main effort to enlarge our market share consists in offering state-of-the-art technology, innovation and modern solutions, tailor-made to our customers’ growth and expectations. We must be able to understand customers’ needs and, at the same time, foresee further developments and expansion.”
Is your market a challenging one?
Tim: “Definitely, yes. Our domestic market is restless, curious about progress made elsewhere in the world. It is extremely receptive to new ideas, interested in technological progress and looking for one-stop, comprehensive solutions. The preference is for servo-driven and intelligent machines, where the level of automation needs increasingly less human intervention and manual adjustments.”
Has the market changed from being letterpress-oriented to more advanced printing techniques?
Roman: “The letterpress market share has eroded rapidly due to the development of the flexo technology. Nowadays, flexo reaches unexpected levels of quality and offers the greatest possible efficiency. The market for flexo and offset printing processes, most often in combination, is expanding rapidly.”
What do label converters and packaging producers look for mostly?
Roman: “Operators look for very quick changeovers and a simplicity of operation. The presses must meet the criteria of high speed of operation, high productivity in short runs, be extremely quick to set-up and reduce stock wastage. Only highly technological advanced machines, like GIDUE’s presses, can offer these results. Our growth margins, and those achieved by our customers, depend largely on what we can offer in terms of these decisive factors.”
So what is the outcome of all your efforts?
Roman: “We have sold, at present, 10 presses. Customers include Label Makers, a repeat customer to whom we had already sold two presses, Mr. Labels, Label Creations, TMA, Peacock Bros. and Kiwi Labels. We also sold three presses to Label and Litho, a New Zealand converter. We should be able to close further deals in the coming months.”
Did your presence at the PrintEx Show last May bring the expected interest?
Roman: “PrintEx ‘07, Sydney’s biggest print and design exhibition, was GIDUE’s first in Australia. During the fair, special attention was paid to the newest I-Combat™, Athena™ and Xpannd™ presses. We had the opportunity to meet a lot of prospective clients and to develop new business. Furthermore, the exhibition, as it is always the case with tradeshows, was a great occasion to observe the world market and to explore new trends in capital equipment expenditure.”
What role does the LATMA Association play in Australia?
Claudio: “Associations like LATMA and FINAT offer great potential in terms of branding, market knowledge and networking with competitors and customers. GIDUE has sponsored events and publications at LATMA. Each meeting is a remarkable networking opportunity to get in touch with new prospects.”

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