Move Over Vistaprint, Colombian Online Printing Provider ‘Printu.co’ Launches In Bogotá

Online printing services provider Printu.co launched last month in Colombia, an website providing printing services via an online ordering model geared towards small and medium sized businesses. Based in Bogotá, the site, run by sibling entrepreneurs Julián Montejo and Adriana Montejo, claims to already service over 2000 web visitors a day, and have sales of 20,000 products in its first month of operation.

The company offers roughly 350 product variations, spanning from company letterhead to large format banners and publicity materials. The business model provides online ordering and door-to-door delivery to any address within Colombia.

“Our objective with this innovative proposal is to democratize access to publicity material. Our desire is that more and more, small businesses and independent businesspeople can count on these print  publicity resources to provide visibility to their brands without having to leave their desk,” says Julián Montejo (above), Printu.co’s Founder.

Printu.co’s CMO Alicia Santa (l) and Alvaro Quiján

The Printu.co model follows the pattern of successful online retailers like Vistaprint.com, Pkgraphics.com, and Printi.com.br.  The global print market, according to Printu.co’s Adriana Montejo, has reached $760 Billion (USD), and the “Web To Print” model makes up to $187 billion of that market. “Without a doubt, our growth opportunity is very large. We are very emotional about starting this new adventure, and to contribute to the printing market in Colombia,” said Adriana Montejo.

Adriana Montejo, before launching Printu.co, found success launching Spanish online retailer Funchoices.com. Funchoices.com was launched with the intent of allowing mothers (and anyone) to personalize items for their children, such as clothing and bedroom adornments. Their success in Europe encouraged them to launch Printu.co in Colombia. “Our platform was built by Colombian and Spanish engineers. The technology has been developed during the last two years with the support of Web 2 Print Experts, a San Francisco (USA) consultancy specializing in the development of e-commerce platforms for the graphics industry,” said Adriana Montejo.

With an investment of $600,000 USD from the company’s founders, technology support from Funchoices.com, and Grupo Solidda, Printu.co hopes to reach $1 million USD in sales during its first year, while transforming the printing landscape in Colombia, and according to the founders, hopefully abroad.

Printu.co serves as an intermediary, owning no printing presses of its own, but contracting with large scale printers while retaining quality control.

“In Colombia, the printing market is fragmented. Printers with high quality standards are focused on large enterprise. For that reason, small and medium sized businesses have serious difficulty purchasing printing products. The lack of transparency in pricing, the low quality of material, the barrier of minimum quantities, added to the high cost of the product, are just some of the difficulties that these small and medium sized businesses face. With Printu.co, we want to change that, offering to customers a platform from which they can print quality publicity material from their computers, and receive the product at their house, from whatever location in the country,” said Julian Montejo.