12.1 Facility and layout

A single leased industrial unit of 2,000 square metres in Midrand, chosen for its position between the Johannesburg and Pretoria corporate corridors and its proximity to the N1 for distribution. The unit is allocated approximately 45% to production, 25% to finishing and kitting, 20% to warehousing and stock holding, and 10% to studio and administration.

Two facility requirements drive capital cost and are easily underestimated. The first is power: a digital press installation of this class, together with UV curing and climate control, requires a dedicated supply and an uninterruptible backup capable of carrying a controlled shutdown. R2.85 million of leasehold improvement, power upgrade and HVAC capital is provided at close, and the plan does not assume grid reliability. The second is environmental control: digital press colour stability and substrate handling both degrade outside a narrow humidity and temperature band, which is a quality issue rather than a comfort one.

12.2 Production capacity and scheduling

Table 20: Installed production capacity and utilisation

Practical capacity is stated net of make-ready, substrate changeover, colour calibration and planned maintenance downtime.

Scheduling is the operational discipline that determines whether the capacity above translates into the margin modelled. A short-run digital plant runs many jobs per shift, each requiring substrate change, colour calibration and finishing setup. Batching by substrate and by finishing route, rather than by client or by due date, is what preserves the throughput assumption, and the MIS is specified to schedule on that basis. A plant that schedules by promise date will not achieve 420,000 clicks per month, and the plan would fail on execution rather than on demand.

12.3 Supply chain and procurement

• Substrate. Paper, board and rigid media are procured from at least two merchants per category, held at approximately 38 days of cost. Substrate is import-exposed and therefore rand-sensitive; pricing is reviewed quarterly and rate cards carry a currency adjustment clause above a 7% movement threshold.
• Click charges and consumables. Contracted with the press OEM at close, with volume step-downs. This is the single largest variable cost line and the one where supplier power is genuinely high; the plan deliberately splits the two presses across different OEM relationships from FY2029 to avoid a single-supplier renegotiation position.
• Outwork. Specialist finishing, foiling, die-cutting, unusual binding, is bought from trade finishers at approximately 4% of revenue rather than capitalised. Volumes do not justify the equipment and the flexibility is worth the margin given up.
• Distribution. Three owned vehicles for Gauteng metropolitan delivery; national distribution through contracted courier partners. Freight runs at 2.2% of revenue.

12.4 Quality, systems and compliance

ISO 9001 certification and FSC chain-of-custody are scheduled for months 5 to 11 and are treated as commercial prerequisites rather than aspirations, listed corporate clients increasingly specify both in tender documentation, and a supplier without them is filtered out before evaluation. Colour management is run to a documented standard with calibrated proofing, because colour disputes are the most common source of reprint cost in digital production and reprints come directly out of gross margin.

The MIS and web-to-print platform is the operational spine: estimating, job ticketing, scheduling, stock, despatch and client ordering run through one system. R1.95 million is invested at close and approximately R0.72 million annually thereafter in licences and development. This is a significant commitment for a business of this size and is deliberate, the platform is the retention mechanism described in Section 11, not a back-office convenience.