Alvin Lawry on Active Print’s reinvention and ERP-fuelled efficiency

Active Print & Promotion in Ashburton is a business that completely reinvented itself about 20 years ago, becoming a supplier of almost any branded merchandise you can think of. Recently a major digital project brought the business onto ERP system Odoo. If Odoo sounds familiar, that might be from our recent interview with Andrew Telfer from Wedoo, New Zealand’s largest Odoo consultancy. In fact, it was through Wedoo that Active Print customised and adopted their new system, which runs on SiteHost infrastructure.

We spoke with Alvin Lawry, Active Print’s Managing Director, about how much more efficient the business has become since their ERP system started humming in our data centre.  

Hi Alvin, tell us a little bit about Active Print and how you ended up where you are today.

Alvin: Active Print is a second generation family business started by my father in 1981. He had a printing company in his garage, which then shifted into a couple of factories in Christchurch. I started as an apprentice running a printing machine. We used to print a lot of things like triplicate invoice books, letterheads, business cards and other things which no one uses anymore.

With the computerisation of business we, as a printing factory, were basically going to be made obsolete. In 2003 a lot of offset printing businesses were beginning to merge, so we changed tack. We sold our gear and by around 2005 we had transitioned to supply corporate gifting, branded merchandise, event signage and things like that. 

Since covid we’ve come back into different sorts of branding, transfer printing onto clothing, bags and caps, pad printing, laser engraving.

As well as changing what you’re selling, how did the reinvention affect the way you engage with customers?

In the old printing industry work just came in the door. If you provided good service, it just repeated. I think that my father still had clients from before I was born when we transitioned the business!

While we still get many repeat customers, the product is usually different each time. We usually provide ideas to our customers so the process is more involved.

And what are your customers ordering? Is every batch of branded collateral unique?

People often want to know what’s new and we do get unusual requests. But oftentimes people look at new or unusual stuff and then still come back to more standard merchandise that works for their customer and their brand. 

Novelty does have an appeal in certain areas, but a lot of what we do is for people who want useful, almost understated or underbranded items. If you're giving something to a tradie or a farmer, they're not usually interested in wacky stuff. They want something that works.

So how can your customers stand out in that situation?

It comes back to the quality of the item and how you brand it, the style, whether it looks good, whether it's appealing to the recipient. If it's useful to someone, then that’s the key.
 
Most of what we do is nice quality stuff. The low end of the branded merchandise market is definitely not there now. Quality has shifted. Take drink bottles. Ten years ago we were providing plastic bottles, but it’s mostly metal now. Nice quality, double walled powder-coated drink bottles. 

Why is that?

You want to give lasting products that people use. If you give something that's just going to end up in landfill, that's no benefit to anyone, is it? The advertiser doesn't get anything and it's not a good look at all. 

Standards have risen over time. If you want to give a drink bottle now, you have to give one that someone wants to use. And they probably have a drink bottle already. So if you want to own that piece of real estate, it has to be a nice one.

From soft toys to drink bottles, how many different ways are there to brand things?

Branding methods include screen printing, embroidery, heat press, laser engraving, or different sorts of print like a wrap print. Leather patches or PVC patches look great on headwear and clothing.

Are you still a printing company?

We started as one, and we still offer printed promotional materials like diaries, calendars, and notepads. But today, our range is much broader with event signage, headwear, drinkware, writing instruments, corporate gifts, and branded clothing. We’ve evolved into a full-service branded merchandise partner.

What do you mean by "full-service"?

We solve the problems that marketing teams know all too well, like cheap products that reflect poorly on your brand, wrong logo colours that damage consistency, supplier juggling that wastes time and causes confusion, or late deliveries and slow communication that adds stress and risk.

How do your customer relationships work?

Our team knows what works for different industries and demographics. Clients often come to us with a budget and a target audience, and we do the research to find the right product—something useful, high-quality, and brand-appropriate. We make sure it’s branded correctly and delivered on time. It’s not just a transaction—it’s a partnership.

We assign dedicated account managers who understand your brand and your deadlines. We’re a whole solutions company, ensuring your logo is accurate across every item. We deliver on time, so there’s no last-minute panic before your event.

We can also help with services like assembly, kitting, fulfilment, warehousing and distribution. For some customers we set up custom company stores or supply reporting and strategic reviews, too.

When did you start managing those customer partnerships in Odoo?

We went live on Odoo in August 2024 and it's definitely improved our workflow a lot. Because there's a lot of moving parts, it has been a long project to get to where it is. It hasn't been without hiccups, but I don't think any new system comes without problems.

What did Odoo replace?

It replaced a number of systems. We’ve moved away from Xero, Pipedrive, Excel spreadsheets and Word docs. Things are much better now. We were pushing Pipedrive to do more than it was capable of, as far as project management goes. Odoo helps us manage the complexity of the promo industry. 

How did you choose Odoo?

We looked at software that's specific to the promo industry and we looked at generic systems like NetSuite and Odoo. You can pay a lot of money for high-end ERP systems. Netsuite is pretty expensive. We saw Odoo as a customisable, mid-level ERP which made it a good option. The challenge is that it doesn't have a lot of functionality off the shelf. You have to spend time customising it and working within the limitations of Odoo. We decided to go that way instead of industry-specific software because we wanted to have control of our destiny. 

Wedoo, your Odoo consultants, see customisation as a big Odoo strength. How did that work for you?

Odoo is very customisable. We can pay Wedoo to make Odoo do whatever we want. If we want to change Odoo, we can. Whereas if we went with industry-specific software we would be stuck with what we get. You can ask for changes or updates but it happens in the supplier’s own time. You have to wait until enough people request it, and hope the vendor isn’t chasing business in another country or industry. Then even if the new thing is built, it might not be how you want it.

As a SaaS product, your Odoo system runs in our data centre, a thousand-odd kilometres from Ashburton. How does it perform for you?

We haven't had any problems with the speed of the system as far as the server side of things goes. No complaints—it’s been good. Now it’s just a question of how fast we fill that server up!

How has your ability to serve your customers changed?

We can respond quicker and more accurately to customer requests.

The core function of quoting and processing jobs, and customer proofs, is working well and we're saving time. And the reduction of duplication and manual entry means more accuracy.

Can you give an example of something that Odoo has sped up?

We have a proper product database now, which we pull from every time we create a quote or a list of ideas for a customer. That database contains the relevant branding methods that apply to each product, so we can quickly include those as well. When we produce the quote it has example pictures with each branding method listed. The customer clicks an email to see that online, and they can order online straight from the quote.

Previously we were emailing everything to them, and they’d reply with changes or other comments, but now that can all be logged directly on the system. 

How do customers approve their proof?

This is another whole step up in efficiency, and it’s a level of customisation that most companies don't have. The system pulls all the product and job information into a proof sheet for customer approval and sign-off, all in one online page. That process saves us a lot of time and increases our job accuracy. It also makes our clients lives easier. They can see the complete picture on one page and approve it online.

How does that affect the actual ordering process?

With Odoo, customer orders are pulled into the orders system from the quote and from the product database. In the past we had to rekey all that information. And now when we produce a customer invoice, all the data is there. When we produce a purchase order to the supplier, all the data is there.

Hearing how efficient quotes and orders are now, I wonder if you have more plans for customising Odoo?

We've definitely got a customisation wish list. We're only halfway, really. As we grow, we'll move our websites across to Odoo and integrate straight in. Then website orders will be native in Odoo, and go straight to our order portal without any data entry. We’ll have the same with website enquiries, and eventually we'll move away from Mailchimp and use the Odoo platform for email and lead tracking as well. Then we won't have to re-enter enquiries into the CRM.

There’s a lot to look forward to! Thanks for your time today, Alvin.