Brother International Australia, a leader in home and business IT peripherals, are excited to announce a partnership with Pumpkin Patch to provide printing solutions across its Australian retail chain. The children's clothing retailer approached Brother to help find an economical way to periodically roll out changes to its store layouts and, after exploring multiple options, settled on a colour laser solution using  the Brother HL-L9200CDW.

Pumpkin Patch is renowned for bright and colourful fashion options and similarly vibrant store layouts. The company places a high importance on store layout which is decided by its team of visual merchandising experts. At Pumpkin Patch head office, the company has created a mock store which is painstakingly set up with each new fashion season or when there is a new promotional activity. Once these have been reviewed and approved, the entire layout is captured photographically and documented thoroughly in order to be communicated to stores via visual merchandising (VM) bulletins. This is then sent to each store to be replicated to ensure continuity in design and layout at each outlet.

For an organisation with so many retail locations, the deciding factor on how to roll out these VM bulletins was on how they could be implemented at the lowest cost. The company looked at various options including in-store digital signage. However, each idea ended up being prohibitively expensive so they turned to Brother Australia to help look into an alternative.

Brother had been a trusted supplier, with stores already equipped with a Brother laser printer being used in day-to-day administrative operations. Pumpkin Patch state manager NSW/ACT, Liz Greig, explains that due to this existing relationship, Brother was the perfect partner to reach out to. “The team at Brother know our business; we have worked with them for over 7 years so we were confident they would be able to find us a viable solution.”

“Brother was asked to provide an alternative solution which could not only accurately reproduce the visual merchandising for each outlet but be cost-effective as well.” Said Luke Howard, Commercial Market Development Channel Manager  at Brother International Australia, “Working with Pumpkin Patch, we realised that the Brother HL-L9200CDW colour laser printer could fulfill all of its needs.”

The Brother HL-L9200CDW was chosen for the roll out – a high-speed, colour laser printer with up to 30 pages per minute output in both colour and monochrome. The colours used in the store mock ups are beautifully reproduced by this machine  which is able to do more in less time and save money on every job by reducing overall printing costs.

The other key benefit of the unit is the easy-to-use front loading toner tray which allows staff to have minimal knowledge on printer maintenance. “With our IT support office being located in New Zealand, we needed to make sure what we delivered to the stores could be installed and maintained by our retail teams. We need it to be intuitive and easy to work with,” Liz explained.

Beginning in May 2015, the printers began to be deployed, first in a small run of 20 stores and later expanded to all 128 stores in Australia.  Pumpkin Patch employees were quickly and easily able to install the printers at each location and all the drivers were able to be installed remotely from the head office in New Zealand. This turned the traditionally time consuming process of printer installation on its head.

The HL-L9200CDW has given Pumpkin Patch the ability to clearly transmit its message of beautiful displays and store layouts to each location with ease. Managers are able to view price changes, end of day reports, stock carton receipts and general correspondence with just a few clicks.

“The new printers showcase the vibrant colours in our products as well as the detail of our designs so it makes the job of recreating the VM team vision easier for retail staff and they are fast which comes in handy when you have a heap of kids at the activity table.”  Liz Greig said.

About Brother International (Aust) Pty Ltd:

With over 100 years in operation, Brother International is a leading global manufacturer of laser printers, label printers, Multi-Function Centres®, fax machines, P-touch electronic labellers, typewriters and sewing machines. A specialist in its product lines, Brother combines customer satisfaction and comprehensive measures for environmental conservation, to manufacture innovative, reliable and practical products to enhance the consumer's lifestyle.

Brother Australia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Brother Industries, which was founded in 1908 in Japan. Brother Australia was established in 1977, with a head office located in Sydney and State offices located in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

About Brother Earth:

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