In March 2021, former Heidelberg executive Anthony Thirlby and his Venn Holdings partner Andy Rae acquired JDP, formerly known as John Dollin Printing. Since then, they have been constantly improving the business and the sales philosophy.
Despite JDP being a long-term customer of Tharstern, there were some parts of the print MIS that weren't being used within the original company. Venn Holdings carried out a full commercial and operational review of the business to decide what needed to change.
The review showed that the Tharstern MIS was only being used for estimating, job costing and invoicing, and Thirlby wanted to change this and ensure it was being used to increase productivity as well as business reporting.
When it comes to MIS implementation projects, Thirlby believes that culture and communication are key. The most important thing, he says, is making sure people understand that the changes you’re making to the business will benefit them as well.
“The JDP team are now fully onboard with the changes made and can see that using Tharstern MIS to full capability has turned the business around. We are going to continue to make the most of it, adding new integrations and functionality to become even more successful.”
Tharstern now sits at the heart of the business, with other software and hardware built up around it. JDP were averaging 15 jobs a day, but they're now up to 167, with no additional head count.
JDP have recently added a Heidelberg XL75 to their ranks and have previously said that there's a strong chance they'll add another one in the coming months. Thirlby wants to continue to push the boundaries and increase their sales, "we’ve got the number one operating XL worldwide and the number one Indigo 100k worldwide, so we know our operating cost base is correct and we just need to have more coming into the sales funnel, which we’re working on."
JDP aim to achieve their goal of growing Venn Holdings ten-fold and say an integrated workflow with the Tharstern MIS at its heart will play a huge role in that.
Anthony Thirlby, Managing Director of Venn Holdings
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