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Fourteen years after a family of businessmen decided to invest in a printing press to cater to the printing needs of their businesses, Basic Graphics, Inc. has now grown into a company that offers more diverse printing solutions to Cebu clients.
The printing company was set up in 1996 by the Liu family, the owners of the LH Paragon Group of Companies, to provide printing services for the group's subsidiaries - Matimco, Inc. (Mandaue Timber Company) and Golden ABC, Inc. which carries the brands Penshoppe, Oxygen, Memo and Forme.
Edmun H. Liu, Basic Graphics Inc.'s chief executive officer, was tasked to set up and run the new company.
Liu said the printing firm was set up because of the growing demand of marketing collaterals of our brands, which then could only be served by printing companies in Hong Kong, Singapore or Manila.
It was a huge investment as the family still needed to order the printing equipment and different kinds of software needed from Germany. And add to these the hiring of the firm's new staff.
?We started with only 20 people and I could say that we were lucky because we got all the help we needed that time. We also brought in a partner whose family was also into the printing business that time. And we also had technicians sent by our suppliers to help train our staff on how to operate the machines,? Liu said.
Liu said that they got supplies from the leading printing equipment manufacturer in the world, Heidelberg-Germany, because they believed that to get quality prints, one should invest in the best machines paired with the best software.
The family's printing venture however didn't get a warm reception from some people in the industry. There were a lot of skeptical comments about the family venture not lasting long because they said that Cebuanos were not concerned about quality but the price.
The family didn't mind the comments and pushed through with the project by setting up the printing plant in their old residence along A.S. Fortuna Street in Mandaue City.
Basic Graphics, Inc. then only operates as an in-house printing for the family's businesses until about a year after, when they already got requests from friends to also serve their printing needs.
They then started offering offset printing services including flyers and brochures to their friends. Then more orders came. To date, their odrers are 90 percent of their operations while printing services for their subsidiaries company only makes up the 10 percent of the total production.
Keeping true to their values of delivering only the best for their clients is the key to their achievements now, said Liu.
?It's because of that value that we keep on learning and innovating and keeping our commitments by delivering and completing on time every project that we enter into with our clients,? Liu said.
Liu said the firm now has 50 work efficient people.
He said there used to be more than 50 people but we brought the number down to 50 while growing their client base and daily production.
?I could say that we also have the most competitive people like our new general manager here Tony Mercado who was based in America for 41 years and. He has done marketing work with numerous printing companies there so he can provide us with his expertise from a customer point of view,? Liu said.
With the printing firm's thrust to achieve the best and prove that Cebu-based companies could also deliver quality printing products, Basic Graphics Inc. became the first Cebuano-owned printing company given full ISO 12647 certification for both pre-press and sheet-fed offset printing becoming one of only three IS0-certified printing companies in the country, and one of 20 in Asia as evaluated by Fogra partner Sinapse Print Simulators with the assistance of Asian Printmedia Consultancy Group president Frits Beurskens.
The achievement won the firm more loyal clients even from outside Cebu.
Liu said that because they want to constantly grow and expand their horizons, they decided to offer more than just printing services but a whole lot more including designs and publication services.
?That's the reason why we changed our tag line from ?premium printing solutions provider? to ?printing possibilities,? Liu said.
Aside from offset printing, BGI now also offers digital printing especially for their clients who requires urgent jobs done.
?They can place the order today and tomorrow morning they can get the finished products,? Liu said.
Despite their constant thrust to deliver on time, there are times that they can't help not being able to deliver because of factors that are out of their control like paper and ink supplies.
?As of now we still don't have a stable supply chain and we are more dependent on imported supply. There are times that we supply of a specific paper is not available and it will take time before the supplier can deliver that's why now our rating for on time and complete delivery is only 99 percent and we are aiming for 99.99 percent,? Liu said.
Finding the right balance for stocking is also a key to avoid supply problems according to Liu.
For their future plans, Liu said that they will keep growing and expanding more options for their customers that will always put emphasis on convenience and value-for-money services.
?I think Tony and his team will soon come up with an online sales system wherein our clients can just place orders online,? Liu said.
