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Tesco Sublimation Service
Tesco are doing mugs at £4.97, coasters at 4 for £3.97 and mouse mats at £3.97 for Fathers day ( 7 day turnaround )
http://www.tescophoto.com/wpp/tesco/John
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29 Replies
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bit late then arnt they?
Just wondered what the relevance is John?
Peter
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Just saw the flyer today Peter………..just that such a big player like Tesco is offering a service like sublimation in its supermarkets
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Well they offer photos and gifts from them etc, same as Sainsburies, in a kiosk, but online is new, but probably under a franchise license, I doubt if they do the actual work in house, Interesting to see they also offer canvas prints from photos as well,
How do their prices compare with what you would expect to charge, I didnt notice, but do they have a minimum quantity or can you just order a single Mug?
Peter -
no minimum order, 7 day turn aroud so certainly not being done in store.
‘Normal’ are higher than I would charge, the ‘discout’ rate is still a little higher.
They are getting into everything!
John
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I always wondered how long before B&Q and similar offer signwriting for builders vans on a do it while you shop basis?
Perhaps I should get in there first
Peter
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They also do canvas prints now.
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Peter,
Perhaps I shouldn’t give my secrets away, but, that’s how I operate, and how I have built my business.
We do customer’s vans while they are in the workshop having the racking put in. The leasing companies love it because it’s one less thing for them to worry about, or have to pay for vehicle movements, and the end users love it because when they receive their new van it is ready to go and start earning money for them. If we can operate a service that minimises inconvenience to our customers then we will succeed.
In my world, when a customer has already taken delivery of his van, then we have missed the boat.
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That’s how a company not to far from me do it John they get the vehicles from the dealers, board the insides, fit racking if needed and do the livery and deliver the vehicle to the customer. I’ve been there lining some of the vans with GRP for them and they work at a hell of a pace.
Steve
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4 quid for a set of coasters?
lol, loads of profit in there then :lol1:
Coasters 40p each, ink and paper probably 20p
50 seconds of heat press time/electric and a sheet of silicon paper on the bed.
might be making 10p a coaster by the time they have finished, and if they are subbing it out then theyre making even less, and the guy selling them is making peanuts.
Think Ill stick to my £10 a set coasters with a nice holder to go with them.
mouse mats were same price as me and so were the mugs, £6 and £7 respectively.
key rings I charge £2.50 for as well so pretty much spot on except coasters. -
nob question
you dont press each coaster separately do you, if the bed is big enough do all at the same time yes no. -
I press as many as I need to do all at once.
can get about 20 or so in my press I think -
You can get metal wrap jackets for mugs and put them in an oven, so if you had a enough of them to do I would imagine it is cheaper than pressing them one at a time but for short runs I think it would be dearer unless you put them in the oven with your food at teatime. :lol1:
Steve
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The wrap jackets are next to useless, you cant beat a press.
I have seen mass produced ovened mugs, from the Aston Vila shop, Arsenal, and various other sources and they dont come out very good at all from what I have seen, ok for mass produced stuff, but not for photos etc. -
I think for large quantities they can be done at the mug production stage,
the photo is applied under the glaze, not sure of the exact method but Im sure I saw it on a video, once?Or was I dreaming?
Peter
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No Peter you werent dreaming, photo glazing is done in an exposure unit.
the photo is stuck to the mug/plate etc and then covered in photoglaze resin,and exposed.
we have the stuff to do it here but its easier for me to dye sub it.
Just bought a new Epson R1400 also so will see how that works out next week. -
Steve,
I bet Tesco won’t be paying 40p each for coasters.
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If they are doing it with sublimation products , how long before we see it with vehicle graphics and the like? i doubt they will ever come close to the whole design cut and apply we all offer. but if they do offer it they will take the random Joe bloggs just wanting company info on his van out of our pockets.
companies like asda, tescos etc are already producing their own banners and promotional stuff in house… -
quote John Childs:Steve,
I bet Tesco won’t be paying 40p each for coasters.
Granted, but I know what Xpres pay for them and they will certainly be geting a better deal than Tesco.
Tesco and the like are basically the reason we havent solda new computer in over 6 months.
They get their claws into everything, and drive a lot of local businesses to the wall, like grocery shops etc. -
Rob,
I’ve been approached twice, once by a vehicle manufacturer and once by a leasing company, to come up with a scheme whereby they can offer vehicle graphics as part of a package to their customers.
The problems were:-
1. It has to be a fixed cost. The people facing the customers have absolutely no knowledge of our business and prices have either to be printed on a price list, or budgeted into the cost of a package.
2. It has to be easily administered. You’re on a fixed price so you can’t afford to mess about matching obscure fonts and colours.
The only way I could think of doing it was to produce an order form so that the end user could enter his details, tick his choice of font from a limited range, and then do the same with colour. You can maybe offer a couple of extra cost options, like shadowing on their name, but it must be kept simple.
A few vans were done, but it falls down for two reasons.
1. The end user usually wants more than those basics, maybe a logo added, but how can that be done on menu pricing when there are so many variables in number of colours, complexity etc.
2. Any end user with more than one van wants his new one to match the existing, and again, that can’t be done at fixed price.
Maybe Tesco as vehicle graphic supplier will come one day, but I can’t for the life of me think how they would do it.
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Tescos & World domination – it sorta goes together!
They are to powerful.
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What I was trying to say, probably badly, above is that the likes of Tesco can only enter a market if things can be broken down into simple steps that can be followed easily and accurately by the likes of the silly schoolgirl who is more interested in filing her nails, or the spotty youth who’s only ambition is to make it to closing time so that he can go and hang with his mates.
Supermarkets have tried selling cars a few times in the past, but none have made a success of it, mainly because of part exchange valuations, which requires trained intelligent staff. I think we’re in a similar position.
So, while they may try vehicle graphics I think that they would only be able to cope with the very simple formulaic stuff and for anything more than that the customers would still have to come to a proper signmaker.
Basically, they would get the "your van lettered for £50" market that we don’t want anyway, a bit like the cheapskates buying lettering on the internet. That’s business we don’t want, and aren’t doing anyway.
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I recall 12 years ago when I first started in this business, my local branch of office world were offering a sign service making up pre-spaced lettering, A boards and banners. They had a section in one corner of the store that was geared up for this but never seemed to be very busy. I don’t know how long it lasted but it’s years since they offered this. I presume it’s more profitable for large companies like Office world to offer an "off the shelf" product like Paper, Envelopes, Fax machines etc. than to offer a custom service like signs.
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theres a book i bought recently called Tescopoly…….this lot want everything ….in some branches down south they are trying to get permission to start doctors surgerys ……surgeries want to take you from the cradle to the grave ,,,,,they buy up vast amounts of land so that there competitors cant build on them …get a copy ….but your unlikely to find a copy in tescos 😀
oh and just a little dity to start the day ….Tesco …T E Stockwell….there first product on the shelves was tea …all those years ago
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….. and I wonder how many government Ministers (you know, those ‘honorable’ people we trust so much) they have eating from their hand!!!!
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quote John Cooper:….. and I wonder how many government Ministers (you know, those ‘honorable’ people we trust so much) they have eating from their hand!!!!
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the thing is john im a hypocrite tescos is just at the bottom of the road from us never really seem to be out of the place …..id love to see the wee individual shop going strong but it aint gona happen i dont think. My dad was in the grocery trade all his life he always said the wee shop would come back into its own but naaaa i think weve done this to ourselves and the big boys are reaping the benefits
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Other big name sublimation suppliers:
Klick
Boots
Asda
Jessops
Tempest Photography (the guys that do the school photos)The easy way to beat all these guys is to produce everything on a next day service or if you are really well set up offer a 1 hour service
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quote Neil Speirs:Other big name sublimation suppliers:
The easy way to beat all these guys is to produce everything on a next day service or if you are really well set up offer a 1 hour serviceTrouble is, no matter how well you did, these BIG players can simply wipe you out if they want. If you begin to threaten their market place, they’d gobble you up. They already control the farming industry with their bully boy tactics.
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quote John Cooper:quote Neil Speirs:Other big name sublimation suppliers:
The easy way to beat all these guys is to produce everything on a next day service or if you are really well set up offer a 1 hour serviceTrouble is, no matter how well you did, these BIG players can simply wipe you out if they want. If you begin to threaten their market place, they’d gobble you up. They already control the farming industry with their bully boy tactics.
Yes but only because they BUY the products farmers produce, they don’t buy stuff from other sublimation suppliers.
there’s no way they could harm your trading whatsoever.
They wouldn’t be able to do a thing about it, and never will.
The only way they can is buy you out which wouldn’t be a bad thing anyway. -
quote John Cooper:quote Neil Speirs:Other big name sublimation suppliers:
The easy way to beat all these guys is to produce everything on a next day service or if you are really well set up offer a 1 hour serviceTrouble is, no matter how well you did, these BIG players can simply wipe you out if they want. If you begin to threaten their market place, they’d gobble you up. They already control the farming industry with their bully boy tactics.
Would have to disagree, I’ve produced gifts for loads of Tesco workers & even had our local Klick staff sending large numbers of customers to my shop because our service is more than just sticking a photo with some arial text on a mug.
When it’s a gift purchase the customer will pay that bit more for the right thing
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