King Printers and Mojo Print of Osaka pursue an interesting business idea. With the former being one of the largest internet print vendors in Japan through his kingprinters.com portal, mojoprint.jp as its partner services an English-speaking audience in need of a service provider in Japan. Customers are relieved of the need to speak Japanese as they only interact with English-speaking staff, nor do they have to laboriously import their printed matter from outside.
Both shops have a non-Japanese background: Mojoworks was founded in 2006 by the British designer Daniel Lee as design bureau and expanded the following year into printing under the Mojoprint label. King Printers is the brainchild of Peter Horvath, who had started its predecessor business in 1995 and fully entered the field of printing in May, 2002. Last year, the company sold 20 billion yen worth (ca. 175 million Euro) through their eight large-size sheet-offset presses; there is also a wide range of downstream operations available. King Printers is a loyal Heidelberg customer when it comes to presses, whereas among its downstream equipment, machinery from Horizon and Müller-Martini can be found. In one of the two pressrooms, though, a Komori LS44, is working.
When online, it is at first glance hardly apparent that the two businesses are working under a cooperative agreement. Though the two shops are linked, they still work independently under two non-compatible systems. Only at the backend will Mojoprint transfer its orders to the larger partner. For King Printers, the volume of orders received from Mojoprint is not all that significant when compared with the Japanese market at large. Nonetheless, the example shows how two businesses working together can unlock a niche market. A niche market that is less defined through a specialized print product than a particular clientele.

The four examples demonstrate two aspects being of overriding importance for success: for one, market segment must be a good fit. Whether it is the personal support at Laserline or support through cross-media production at Kessler Druck, or support in one’s native language in a foreign country as is the case with Mojoprint—the crucial factor of being able to set oneself apart from the competition reigns supreme. The other side of the coin remains the efficient integration of workflow from order receipt and the checking of customer data to personalized service and shipment, with no mistakes allowed!