Madeeh Jamal, Managing Director of Print Lab Creative has comprehensive experience of 10 years in all facets of advertising and large format printing throughout the Maldives. We sat down with him to gain an insight into his journey and how Print Lab Creative was established in the country.
How did this start? What’s the idea behind Print Lab?
Back then, I was involved in Signages, trophies & Plaques, embroidery & customized gifts and T-shirt printing. Large format printing was something that was very new to the Maldives. During those days, all the Large Format jobs had to be outsourced and the delivery and sustainability were really poor back in those days. Most customers were demanding for better delivery and stability. So it became a challenge. The idea of Print lab was to change this. I started large format printing in 2009. My target was to deliver the product to the customer on the same day and time it was ordered. That was my aim and that’s what we work for. Whether it is day or night, we delivered on time and in return, we gained the people’s trust.
What are the biggest challenges you face in your area of work?
The biggest difficulty would be the materials. We have around 10 very large machines. The ink that we use has a shelf life. We need to store enough to meet the demand. For example, it takes a minimum of 25-45 days to get it from our foreign suppliers. The shelf life of ink is 3 months. Further, we have around 70 different media here. The machines need to be used continuously, regularly to prevent blockages. So maintaining the stock levels and machines are the biggest challenges.
What do you do that’s different from your competitors?
Print Lab provides a very professional and personal service to customers, regardless of the quantity and type of business. We deliver on the same day on time. For us, it’s not about just money. It’s the happiness and satisfaction of clients. And unlike most others, we import our print media ourselves so we don’t depend on anyone else.
What’s your biggest success?
It has been 11 years since I started this business and within those years we had surprisingly few complaints. And that which we did, wasn’t regarding poor service or slow delivery or anything like that. Gaining the trust of clients is the biggest achievement.
During the pandemic, Print Lab carried out several activities as CSR such as the COVID-19 sample kiosks. What were some other CSR works done?
Every tournament and event needs printing. One of the biggest prestiges we hold is that we have given several event canvases with a free percentage of the price. We want our clients to benefit. The whole event changes due to the products we gift. We have also provided free services to NGOs and Gender Ministry as well. It is something that gives me great satisfaction.
What’s your advice to the young entrepreneurs?
The most important part of running a business is the service and to become trustworthy. Quality and reliable delivery is important. In a small community like ours, it shouldn’t be just about money as the customers are not one time only clients. It is very easy to get customers, but harder to retain them. With just one mistake like a communication error, you will lose customers.
What’s the future of digital printing and Print Lab?
We see a very small percentage of printing here. Printing is a very broad and wide industry. We do large format printing. There are other printing such as offset printing, retail printing and UV printing. Every machine is a separate media such as t-shirt printing, fabric printing, rubber printing, sublimation printing and etc. Printing is very broad and currently, we are tapped into a very small percentage of it. Our hope, in the future, is for Print Lab to offer all printing services under one roof. Not just printing, but also customised framing as well. My aim for the future is to provide a total solution in printing for clients.
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