Hello ! I am very pleased today to welcome Sophie Viel, who is the CEO of Printecom, to this Over The Skype session, especially in the context of the initiative launched in the United States by the famous print ambassador Deborah Corn: the Girls Who Print initiative, which aims to support companies, initiatives and projects led by women from all over the world in the graphic industries. This year’s Girls Who Print Day will take place on October 22nd, and Inkish will be delighted to support this event. Come on, let’s get started. And as for France, I’m delighted to introduce Sophie Viel. Sophie, we know each other a little bit, so we are on first-name terms… A few words about you, your background and Printecom.
A beautiful journey! Well hello Yves! I went to an international business school with a specialization in marketing and advertising and, following that, I was hired by an advertising professor at the time, who was creating a communication agency. So, I was immediately in the game after my studies as a corporate communications consultant to create their graphic charter, media buying and non-media buying. I did that for about seven years. And then I went to the other side of the fence, if I may say so, since I was hired by a printer as a marketing and communication manager. It was an exciting position, especially in the graphic arts field, which was very, very rewarding. And then I held different positions throughout my career, and finally ended up working for a junior printer who was doing a lot of external growth and who had bought, at the time, a small business that was doing advertising and wanted to broaden its range of products to offer to customers, in addition to the price. And so he asked me to take care of this small business and make it grow, enrich its range of products… We were led to offer POS, signage… so everything that we didn’t do internally at this printer in the North of France. So I did that for five years. I liked it a lot, because it was extremely formative, and then, in terms of knowledge, techniques… each graphic arts field has its own vocabulary, its own printing techniques… So it was extremely educational. And it’s true that I arrived at a time, I would say at a turning point in my career when I was either starting in my late forties and continuing my career in the North, or I was questioning almost everything and launching myself into entrepreneurship in Normandy. It turns out that, indeed, at the time, after almost 22 years spent as an employee, the choice of starting a business was a bit complicated at first. But in fact, it was my brother who… And you took the step…
Yes, so, it happened pretty quickly. It’s quite surprising. Initially, if you like, I was looking for a job as rewarding as mine in Normandy, but I couldn’t find something that would use all the professional skills I had acquired over my twenty-year career. As a result, it was my brother who said to me, “You always wanted to create your own company. Why don’t you go for it? “I said, “Why not? “So I wrote a business plan that I presented to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Normandy, in the Manche region. They said, “Okay, we’ll give you a loan of honor. “The bank followed me, the Women’s Initiative Guarantee Fund also guaranteed me. All the lights were green, so I went ahead and created Printecom five years ago now. And for the record, it was my mother who told me not too long ago that I had two games when I was little: I played Wonder Woman and Head of the Company!
So you were predestined!
I didn’t become Wonder Woman, but I did become a business owner. And today, it’s like a given. It’s part of me.
Bravo! So, just a few words about Printecom, this great company…
What does it do? Today, Printecom means offering companies all the communication media that may exist and that they need throughout their lives. In other words, they will participate in a trade show, they will be given the opportunity to acquire a stand, furniture to furnish the stand, lanyards, invitations to send out to bring their customers to the stand, etc. But it’s also the advertising object for the end of the year, it’s signage, road signs to equip their exteriors …
The idea is to offer companies the know-how of a few hand-picked manufacturers, for a few years now, that I have selected for their reliability, for the quality of their products, for their respect of deadlines too, it is very important, and for their excellent value for money. And at Printecom, a company can find everything it needs to communicate.
So your clients are mainly large companies? What is the profile of your customers?
They are very varied, ranging from all sectors of activity, from food processing to metallurgy, for example, and from craftsmen to multinationals. So it’s very, very varied. The advantage for them is that they save time and they can pool their purchases, because with a single contact person – or contact person in this case – they can group together their purchases, they know that the quality/price ratio is optimum, and they won’t need to consult Paul for signage, Jacques for the stand, and Sophie for the promotional items. They know that they can ask me for anything… that’s the goal.
And geographically speaking, they are mainly located in the north of France, or in France as a whole?
Until now, Printecom had an area that stretches from Rennes to Paris, so the Great West, we’ll say. That’s something that tends to evolve today, thanks to the platform.
Exactly, it’s a nice transition, thank you Sophie. Today, Printecom is launching a platform, but, before describing it to us, can you tell us about the genesis of this project? Which markets is it aimed at and how did you get support in setting up this platform?
So, in fact, the Printecom.fr platform is the result of a reflection. I wanted to continue to develop my turnover, since I was reaching a certain limit in geographical terms, and in physical terms, since until now I had a showcase site only. So you could see a certain number of products, but there was a need to travel or to send quotes, so it was a fairly substantial investment of time. And since I wanted to continue to develop the product range, the specificity of Printecom’s offer and the turnover, the idea came to me, quite simply, to set up an e-commerce site, and the solution I found most relevant was Prestashop. So today it allows me to offer more than 3000 product references and communication supports to companies and they can order online without any worries, or even download their files and order online. So it allows me today to have a visibility on the whole France, then to save time, for the customers as for me, to manage all these orders. Especially with the current health crisis, where the fact of dematerializing and being able to order directly online, we have seen it with the orders in e-commerce that have exploded, including in our businesses. Precisely, we are going to look together at your very beautiful platform, Printecom, which is really unique, and we are going to try to understand it a little better. That’s why I’m delighted to share my screen with you. Sophie, I hope you can see the platform well.
Yes.

I think our audience does too.

Now we’re on the home page. I am very interested in the four different worlds you have created: Printedeco, Printegreen, Printebrand and Printeprotec. But we’re going to go step by step. Printebrand, what can you tell me about this universe?
Printebrand is the genesis of Printecom, in fact. These are the communication support poles that meet 90% of customer demands today in terms of brand awareness. We have signage, as I was saying earlier, participation in trade shows and events, stationery and printing, so all the print… but the current print, I would say – the essential thing is to respond to a complementary global offer – and all the business gifts and goodies, which today is quite extensive. And with regard to current events, I wanted to focus on end-of-year business gifts. Today, it’s time to thank our customers for their loyalty, especially in times as turbulent as today. I was talking about it again with a customer the other day who said to me, “I want to make end of year gifts, because there are going to be few of us to make them, and it’s my gifts that will make the difference with my customers”. Because it is also important to show that we are always there and that we thank our clients, because it is thanks to them.
We see a gift list that is quite impressive.

There is a selection of customizable business gifts, of course, for all budgets, with the possibility of customizing with the company logo.

That was for Printebrand. Now, since I like it very much, because it’s very topical with this demand for eco-responsibility and sustainable development, Printegreen. First, I’m going to highlight the tab. What can you tell us about this beautiful universe?
It’s a universe that comes completely from my personality, so in sustainable development. It is not just a trend or a fashion phenomenon. As far as I’m concerned, there is a real personal approach and I have noticed – and I still see – the enthusiasm of customers for everything that is ecological advertising objects, organic textiles … So I wanted to make this universe all around sustainable development and ecology. So I wanted to make this universe around sustainable development and ecology. So I included all the plant communication, still poorly known. Today, we can communicate with plants, with seeds, with seeded paper. This is the opportunity, as we will see later, to make personalized greeting cards.
Excellent ! It’s original. Then I included a little wink – even a big wink – and a tip of the hat to everything that is made in France, in communication and communication supports.
I’m highlighting some flagship products: the four-page planting cards printed on both sides…
Since we are indeed in the greeting cards and end of the year gifts, it seemed a bit original to me to propose you the greeting card in seeded paper, which is quite playful and quite poetic too. And to be able to print your message of thanks and good wishes on a paper that will then be planted, watered and become flowers, I think it’s a beautiful image.
Bravo, very very nice picture!
It feels good to have a bit of sweetness!
I really like this universe and the other one as well, the one we’re going to move on to now, Printedeco. It is a universe and an approach that fascinates me. Sophie, Printedeco, a few words about it, about personalized decoration…
There, I could be proud to be, I think, today unique in France, to propose all the decoration objects, promotional carpets and furniture personalized with the logo of the companies on a single site. So, whether you need, for a store, a welcome carpet for intensive use, no worries… You will easily find on the Internet a manufacturer who will be specialized in the field, but the interest of this universe is to propose all the new communication supports today in terms of corporate decoration. We have flagship products that are now successful, such as the kit eating stands, with its stools, which are sent for 269 euros excluding tax. You have a stand with your logo, the stools which are also fully customized, to set up a stand, a reception area, a relaxation area in a company … These are new communication tools which are nowadays very popular and set you apart from the competition.
We’re really into mass customization. Also the fact of being able to personalize supports that we know well, such as paper, (…) more and more also on furniture, whether it’s furniture for living rooms, but also furniture – I saw on your site – for offices… It’s fascinating. It’s exciting. We’re very much in tune with what’s being developed with customers.
And it works very well. Plus it’s for budgets that are very affordable. This is the “coffee break” kit, but you have the sofas, it can be fabric or inflatable, imitation leather, cardboard furniture … We have a wide range of customizable furniture for businesses.
And I know that on this platform, you bring all the advice, precisely because for these new approaches, you have both these product services, but also all the advice that you bring to customers on the personalization of these different products. A very last universe that I discovered not so long ago, and I think it’s the fact of the day: Printeprotec. So it’s the difficult news that made that… What is interesting is that we see that companies, in this case small companies like yours, are very agile and can respond very quickly to the needs of their customers. Bravo! I was very impressed by your agility and how you were able to put some very popular products online today. Sophie, a few words about these products…
Yes, as you were saying, it’s unfortunately coming out of the news. But we also had to propose and support customers in this whole protection process. We already had a notion of safety at work, with kits, first aid objects, reflective articles, such as the vests you see on the screen, but, following this Covid story, we had to propose and be at the side of our customers for all that is protection and barrier gestures, both in terms of computer tools – the display… and you’ll find that on the site as well, the specific display for wearing the mask or things like that, but also the 30 washes personalized four-color mask, which you see on the screen, which is an (additional) communication tool – you have to see it like that today. The demand is growing, because disposable masks, as relevant as they are, are still disposable masks. Whereas here, we are on an almost ecological dimension and it is a new communication vector that fits perfectly with current events. But today, it’s starting to become part of everyday life. Companies are equipping themselves with this type of mask – I myself have made some for the company, to offer to my customers, with the Printecom logo. It’s getting better and better perceived, and nowadays you have to take it as such, it’s a com tool in its own right, and I think it’s likely to stay for a while.
Yes, a few months… And with, as you can see, all the respect of the requirements of the AFNOR standard to meet the sanitary constraints. So, for that, bravo ! So four universes, that’s what I like, it’s really to make our task easier, to guide us. I really like it when I analyze sites… So yours is wider than web to print. It’s a bit like a unique site that I haven’t seen elsewhere yet, that fully responds to new trends and what’s happening. How did you come up with the idea of creating these four universes?
Until now, when I presented the company, it was complicated for me to show the range of products I could offer. And I turned to a marketing firm that helped me to position under universes and organize the product lines I had. So it’s thanks to this firm that I was able to get an outside view. And that’s important, as a company manager, forgive me for saying it, a little head in the sand… It’s hard to take a step back from the offer, and it’s true that I sometimes had customers saying to me, “And that’s what you’re doing too? “Yes, I do, of course. That’s what challenged me and made me think, “I have to organize this so that customers can find the products more easily”.
It’s very relevant because there are other sites of famous brands – which are also very good, but one flaw that I know these big companies are working on is that their catalog becomes so important at a certain point that it’s hard to find your way around. And the fact that you’ve broken down your offer into four universes – and maybe tomorrow five, depending on current events and customer needs, I find it very relevant. My last question, Sophie, is: how do you see Printecom and this beautiful platform evolving in the coming years?
Well I have lots of projects!

I can imagine!
I would like to expand the range. And I’d like to take this opportunity to call on the manufacturers who are watching us and who will recognize themselves in Printecom’s positioning and corporate values to offer me products that I could integrate into the platform to complete the range. In this regard, a few days ago, I was contacted by a Belgian carpet manufacturer, who found me on the web and offers me – and I will integrate them – carpets made from recycled plastic bottles, and he manufactures them in less than 24 hours. So this is typically the type of product I want to integrate in the store. It’s a first brick to the platform building, it’s to complete this line. And I also want the platform to become even more flexible, so that the customer, when he connects, when he looks at a product, can know if the product is immediately in stock – I mean in sufficient quantity – or if it needs to be specially manufactured… I would like him to be able to customize directly on the product online… It has to evolve. In any case, now that the store and the platform are up and running, we have to keep moving forward. Afterwards, I’m open to any suggestion (…) There are human beings behind this platform. It’s not just a web store, it’s human beings and we’re here to move forward and to progress. So whatever is good to take, I take it with great pleasure.
All good ideas will be sent to you. Sophie, I am very proud to be able to interview you and to be able to present with you both Printecom and your news about the launch of this very beautiful platform, which is very well structured, in my opinion. I am sure that my colleagues from different countries abroad will also be delighted to be able to react and congratulate you on all the work that has already been put online. I’m very impressed. Thank you very much, Sophie!
I have one more message… may I?

Of course you can!

Since we’re talking about international, there’s something that will be very important to me in the years to come, it’s to open the store internationally. Today, I am Franco-French, but I hope one day to be able to export, especially made in France, internationally.

The message has been well received. It’s a beautiful message. In any case, we will follow you, Sophie, and also the evolution of your platform. Thank you very much and see you soon!

Thank you, see you soon!