Having just hung up my phone after an interview with the founder of vehicle wrapping specialist Raccoon, Richard Clark, it is clear that one word describes the company better than any other. To quote a now much used phrase by international music star and The Voice’s Will. I. Am., it is ‘fresh’.
Keeping the company current and its services relevant has been at the core of Clark’s strategy since 1992, when Raccoon came into being armed only with a vinyl cutter and a 3ft wide Novajet ii inkjet printer. Since then it has had a number of break through ideas, seeing it move to become one of the UK’s first trade suppliers of large-format print, before morphing the business into one of the countries very first specialists in vehicle branding.
When I started up, a lot of people were still doing sign-writing for shop fascias and vehicle liveries. The last 20 years has seen a lot of change, the whole industry is now computerised and printers only keep getting better, wider, and faster”
“I came into the industry fresh in 1992 from a background in the retail industry, and I think that open mind has stayed with me throughout building Raccoon,” says Clark, who adds: “That was the early 90s and a recession was biting down hard then on businesses too, so I was looking for something creative that utilised the very latest computerised manufacturing technology. At that time vinyl cutting kit had been out for a few years, but wide-format inkjet was only just getting off the ground for smaller companies to buy into.”
Clark explains that using his background in the retail market, he could see the opportunity for producing short-run poster prints and cut vinyl for signs and vehicle liveries. A huge period of change for the industry, this era sowed the seeds for Raccoon to grow into one of the UK’s top vehicle wrapping companies—seeing it work regularly for customer’s such as top tourist destinations, Hollywood film companies, motor sport teams, and the now world-renowned Gumball Rally 3000.
Clark continues: “When I started up, a lot of people were still doing sign-writing for shop fascias and vehicle liveries. The last 20 years has seen a lot of change, the whole industry is now computerised and printers only keep getting better, wider, and faster.”
Full throttle
Raccoon can create a range of different designs for its customers
Raccoon founded its current success on the building blocks of a series of high-profile projects and creating markets literally from scratch. Clark tells the story of a ground-breaking project in 2005, where he heard on the grapevine that the London Eye marketing team couldn’t find an events team to fully brand the outside of two capsules to look like London buses. Raccoon stuck its hand up, and saw its wrappers soon swinging off rope access equipment in the middle of the night to complete the project.
“We pride ourselves on being able to take on challenges and projects that are beyond the ‘norm’,” says Clark, who adds: “Another good example is that Foxtons estate agents came to us in 2007 and needed to wrap its fleet of 600 minis in three weeks. We achieved it for them when no one else could. They then went to someone who just quoted cheap the next time round, that company failed to deliver and they have stayed with us ever since.”
We pride ourselves on being able to take on challenges and projects that are beyond the ‘norm’”
Challenging commissions is right, wacky ones too. Raccoon is also famous for being the official wrapper for the Gumball 3000 Rally. Inspired by the 1976 Rory Nelson Film, this repeat commission is a standard bearer for how Raccoon approaches its business strategy.
“We built this project from nothing. The first year we were just trying to create some publicity by offering to wrap two supercars for the rally free of charge. The next year word started to get round and we did ten wraps, then the next year we did 30. This year we did 40 supercars in just seven days, travelling to Copenhagen where the rally was due to start,” explains Clark.
He adds: “We also applied mirror gold logo sets to a further 120 cars—all in a rented dockside warehouse. The end results this year really were fantastic and we were having to dovetail this huge operation as cars were coming in from all over the world on containers, some from as far afield as the Far East, Australia, and South America.”
Wrapping revolution
Founder Richard Clark has built the company's success by focusing on keeping it
relevant and adapting quickly to market forces
It is this spirit that is perhaps the most important factor in trying to tie-down how Raccoon has grown to its current position in the market. It now employs 15 full-time staff, with a huge number of top qualified wrappers it can call on when work-volumes require it.
“We developed a fashion trend from scratch with Gumball, and this is something we have done in a few different sectors now,” states Clark.
To stay current and relevant you have got to keep changing things up. It can just be little things that subtly change your direction, but lead to you completely changing the way your business runs”
A key trend since the ‘wide-format print revolution’ of the late 1980’s and early 1990s has been that many companies which started up in the early days—or jumped on the bandwagon for doing colour change and digitally printed vehicle graphics—have dropped this element of the business in the face of tough competition. This may have been because many invested too heavily in technology that quickly became outdated, or moved too quickly to embrace niche sectors like vehicle branding before the materials or printing kit was properly established.
Clark also has some clear ideas about why only a few pioneers are left doing battle with a huge number of sign-makers and specialists alike that do everything from vehicle wrapping to exhibition stands: “I think I am fairly good at reinventing the business and being able to second guess the market. To stay current and relevant you have got to keep changing things up. It can just be little things that subtly change your direction, but lead to you completely changing the way your business runs.
“If a market starts to die and you can see it happening, then you just have to accept it and adapt. Ten years ago we were doing a lot of trade print for sign-makers and exhibition companies, and only a small amount of vehicle graphics. But one by one my clients started to buy their own printers as the technology became more affordable and productive. If I had stayed out in the wilds, then my margins would have kept shrinking and eventually disappeared—we would have too.”
If a market starts to die and you can see it happening, then you just have to accept it and adapt”
Raccoon made the move away from trade print in the early 2000s, and went from having done only a handful of vehicle wraps to making it a core part of the business over the next five years.
“It is so much more flexible,” says Clark, adding: “You can add different levels to the business; if you are a trade print company it is very commodity based and all about price per square meter. With a vehicle wrap on a VW Beetle say, it costs £1,500, in that you can charge good margin for the print, design, and for the application—so you can get a good profit for whole job.”
Clark also saw the potential of the internet early on, not just as an information tool, but as a brand platform to showcase the very best a company has to offer in terms of creativity. It was among the very first companies to launch a dedicated vehicle wrapping website, with Clark stating that at the time there was virtually no competition on Google if you searched for the service. Today there are thousands of listings.
Eyes on the road
Raccoon is the official wrapping partner for the Gumball 3000 rally
A key trap that many competitors have fallen into over the years, says Clark, is that they have underestimated the technical skill and production processes you need to make vehicle wrapping a realistic and sustainable part of your business.
“You are already a good wide-format print-services-provider, you have the equipment, you can print onto vinyl, and you think you have a good skill set. So, a customer asks if you can do a vehicle wrap for them, and you have a go. The problem is that unless it is a very straightforward job, it is in the details that everything starts to go wrong very quickly,” explains Clark.
It is not one simple thing that causes wraps to fail. It is more often than not a number of small mistakes or incremental miss-steps that will cause it to delaminate, crack, or even fade too quickly. This can be anything from using the wrong cleaning fluid for a particular vinyl, through to the wrong ink for a particular media—not to mention getting the wrap application wrong itself.
There is a lot of average applicators out there, whether they are self employed or part of a company. Not being critical of individuals, the problem is that, unless you are doing it on a daily basis, your skill set will not get to the level that customers demand today”
“Even now there is a shortage of skilled applicators,” bemoans Clark.
He continues: “There is a lot of average applicators out there, whether they are self employed or part of a company. Not being critical of individuals, the problem is that, unless you are doing it on a daily basis, your skill set will not get to the level that customers demand today.”
Several of Raccoon’s staff have been with it for nearly ten years, and so Clark claims it has become easy for them to do a very good job, every day.
“That’s the battle these companies have,” he states, adding: “If you are a sign-maker in the main and get a job in once a week—and the guy you use is normally doing sign installs or flat vinyl application—then you are setting them quite a hard task for them to turn around and go, ‘I’m going to do a lovely job on this’. There are a lot of companies that can do this well, but it is also where a good few companies fall over.”
Clark advises that if you are going to make vehicle branding a part of your business today, it is worth hiring someone with vehicle branding as a core skill, and then training them to do other sign-making activities.
“The only answer is that you either go for it full hog and concentrate on it so you have enough jobs to do it regularly, or don’t get involved,” emphatically states Clark.
The right tools
The Raccoon team out in Copenhagen on completion of the Gumball 3000 wrap
Another important element that Clark cites as key to Raccoons current success is its long experience. Many first time wrappers will assume that vinyl is vinyl—if you have the colour or can create the design your customer wants, then you are away. The truth is that the majority of vinyl products, especially for vehicle branding, are best suited to fairly specific applications. It could be a need for a product that can be removed very easily, withstand harsh outdoor conditions, or fit into the very deep recesses of high-specification sports cars.
Choosing the right product for a project plays a huge part as well”
Clark picks up on this point: “Choosing the right product for a project plays a huge part as well. Looking to ourselves as an example, if I have somebody that enquires on a job to cover some interior walls with vinyl, I will be reliant on the info from suppliers. The salesman says his vinyl is great, and I might even buy based on price. It is not until the job is done that you may realise you have picked the wrong product. Next time you go to do a wall job you know the pit falls. Over a long period of time you understand what works, what doesn’t, and the limitations.”
Finer detail
Raccoon contributed to the famous Gumball 3000 with its vehicle wrapping skills
Another important part of Raccoon’s business model is being able, not only to design projects in-house, but choose the right designer for a particular job. In this way it can first narrow down and specify the right vinyl for a specific job and then go to one of four designers who specialise in different areas. These range from 3D conceptual design for motorsport companies, through to straight corporate identities for a vehicle fleet.
What’s next for Raccoon? Well, one of the biggest fashion trends to emerge from this sector at the moment is being able to wrap your vehicle in textured ‘fabric like’ media.
We are now doing really exotic things like completely wrapping vehicles in flock material to look and feel like velvet”
Clark concludes: “We are now doing really exotic things like completely wrapping vehicles in flock material to look and feel like velvet. We have exclusive rights over the media from the French supplier Velvet Cars. We are also going to head to FESPA 2013 and look at the new latex print technologies on show. These weren’t great when they first came onto the market, but today they hold the potential to produce really high quality graphics, without the need to outgas or have to deal with working around solvents all the time. Our core goal is going to remain, as ever, staying fresh.”
