The field of printing has changed dramatically with the emergence of digital printing. The performance of printing tasks nowadays is very different from what people associated with printing some 40-50 years ago, from the preparation of content materials for printing to the advanced printers that may be used for the production of high-quality printouts. The printing enterprise of Be’eri Print has been thriving in this field. But then came a catastrophic event that has thrown the company into shock and the uncertainty of a crisis situation. The event was unrelated to the business of the company per se but external — it was the terrorist attack that took place on 7 October 2023 in Israel.

The printing factory of Be’eri Print is located in Kibbutz Be’eri in the south-west countryside region of Israel. Be’eri Print was established in 1950 and is fully owned by the kibbutz community (founded in 1946). The printing business is an outstanding addition to the farming and agricultural engagements of the kibbutz-village.

The community of Kibbutz Be’eri (of ~1,000 residents) suffered gravely in the brutal attack of Hamas (joined by other factions), with 84 residents killed (mostly murdered in their homes, some killed in defensive combats, over 100 people were killed in area of the kibbutz), and about 30 residents and guests were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip; furthermore, houses were destroyed, vandalised and burned down. Ten of the employees of Be’eri Print were killed, including the finance manager (CFO) who was killed in battle. The factory itself was closed for the Shabbat and holiday on that weekend, and so was not penetrated (some windows were shattered), but the ground around the site shook. The impact on the business and its staff is primarily the tragedy and grief following the catastrophe of the massacre. Amid this difficult destabilizing situation Be’eri Print is trying these days to rise up and resume normal activity.

In 1996 Be’eri Print entered the domain of digital printing, which opened up to them, and their clients, whole new possibilities in designing, generating and printing higher-quality and more sophisticated materials, in digital and physical formats (mainly on paper but not exclusively). Since the time of initiating the transformation, the company continues developing and deepening its capabilities in digital printing, including development and use of printers with advanced technologies — speed, colour, and linkage to databases. In particular, an important progress happened with the joint-development (with Scitex) and global launch of the advanced colour printer VariColor in 2000.

Combined with the entry into digital printing, Be’eri Print also ventured (in 1996) into applications of personalisation of the content printed. This form of flexible, variable printing is largely facilitated by digital, computer-based technology, down to the level of detailed data on small customer segments and individuals. It means that parts of content of a document can be adapted to the personal characteristics and other information (e.g., preferences) of consumers. Personalisation is key for marketing and advertising purposes, as well as in service contexts. The printing systems allow the inclusion of personalised-adapted messages and targeted marketing banners in various documents (e.g., in billing invoices). The company operates mailing services for many organisations (e.g., banks, utilities, local and government authorities) to their own customers, producing and distributing billing invoices, report and update notices such as banking account statements, and other types of letters. [Note: Mail distribution is executed through a branch established with partnering companies, its subsidiary Messer.]

• On a mailing envelope prepared by Be’eri Print, received in most recent days, appears a blue square with the wording (translated from Hebrew) “must go on printing” (it seems to be a rephrase on the lyrics of a famous Israeli song “must go on playing music”).

Personalisation was quite a new concept in the late 1990s. One of the early ideas of Be’eri Print, nearly thirty years ago, was to create a personalised calendar, that is, permitting consumers to submit photo images of their choice, specifically family photos, for placing on month pages of the calendar. It suggested a break from the standard practice of placing sets of images pre-selected by the printer (e.g., representing art or nature themes). At that time, while working in marketing research for a consulting firm (‘Ziv Consulting’ on marketing strategy), I was assigned to analyse the open-ended responses from in-depth interviews with consumers on their perceptions of and opinions on this option of personalised calendars. It was a small study with limited objectives of early testing acceptance of the proposed concept. It should be noted that the results were mixed: respondents did not fully understand the idea, how it would work, or the benefits of such a calendar to them; there was interest but only partial and not so strong, as I recall. Nevertheless, in retrospective we know that the interest in this kind of personalised products grew considerably through the first two decades of the years 2000s, and they are quite popular these days.

It appears that the problem was not truly with the idea but with the timing: it came too early. To substantiate the case for personalisation: some twenty years later, in 2017, Be’eri Print launched ‘albume’, its offering of personalised photo albums, actually art-designed albums produced in a format of photo book (i.e., photos are pre-printed on pages, with titles and captions composed by the customer, and other editing features). They have become popular for celebrating and marking special family occasions.

• The various documents that service providers (business or public) address to their customers can be generated, with individual-relevant content and their graphic design elements, in a digital (file) format. The service providers, in accord with their customers, have the option to choose between print (paper) or online (file) distribution of copies of those documents (customers can receive digital copies these days by e-mail or access them via a secured zone on a website of the service provider).

Be’eri Print offers a range of other products, including credit and ID cards, driving licenses, banking cheques, and packaging which can be mounted with graphic design. Nonetheless, it is interesting to look further into Be’eri’s advanced operations and their supported services. According to the website of Be’eri Print, they constructed a suite of advanced data-driven applications for print services, entailing segmentation, personalisation, and data mining analytics as an infrastructure for creating their advanced and adaptive printouts. Most recently (2020) they added a service of omni-channel communication (‘E-ngage’), apparently an enhancement of the capabilities described in the bullet-note above. Among their services, for instance, is their service of ‘letter in a click’ that allows clients to produce letters independently for digital mailing. In online mailing, they also offer a possibility for presenting interactive invoices. Lastly, Be’eri Print launched a website for self-service online printing: at ‘Pix’ business customers can compose, design and produce, using tools of Be’eri Print, business materials, marketing-related and others, and order them immediately, by streaming them online, for physical printing on Be’eri’s printers (it resembles a concept of mass customisation — from the customer’s application to the factory’s printer).

Turning backwards again, it is noteworthy to mention a practically elegant product invented by Be’eri Print (registered patent) from 1984: a letter that folds into an envelope in one piece (called in Hebrew ‘Ma’atafit’, which may translate in English to ‘Envelopit’). The ‘Envelopit’ is appropriate for mailing of a single page letter; the name and address of the recipient are printed on the top paper ‘leaf’ that folds over the letter. Thus, one saves on the combination of an envelope and a letter page within it — saving time and money for the sender, and time and effort for the recipient who has to open the standard envelope and take out the single letter (a prize-winning original development for increasing efficiency of mailing, 1986). In aim to make the process of opening even easier and quicker, a version of the ‘Envelopit’ was created with margins separated by dotted lines so that a recipient can open it by detaching the margins. Be’eri Print added a more recent version of their ‘Envelopit’ with an attached banking cheque (with dotted line for separating the cheque from the letter) to the credit of the recipient for depositing.

• Envelope-letters are omnipresent nowadays, and there are versions of them either sticked with glue or with tearing-margins. Detaching the dotted margins does not always work as smoothly as intended, but detaching glued paper can also cause the letter to tear down in part.

Be’eri Print re-opened its printing factory and resumed operations a week after the attack (on Sunday 15 October). As said by the marketing manager (CMO) of the company, they were mourning and crying from Saturday, but by Tuesday of the following week they started thinking forward, which is helping them to raise their heads. The CEO of Be’eri Print (Ben Suchman) told about the great difficulty of recovering from the catastrophe and loss, and yet on the background of this tragedy it was decided that they had to return to the printing factory: “Be’eri Print is part of the community of the Kibbutz, which is currently hurting, mourning and agonizing; we are trying, through the connection between the community and the factory, to produce a more optimistic change” (Ynet, 15 October 2023, origin in Hebrew). The loss of Suchman is personal as well since his mother was murdered on that terrible day.

The Be’eri printers have to overcome new and hard challenges following the extreme event of the assault on their community. They operate these days with reduced staff, because most of the inhabitants of Kibbutz Be’eri and other establishments in that region of the Negev have been evacuated to recovery centres in other parts of the country (e.g., hotels, other kibbutz-villages). Besides employees from the Kibbutz, the printing factory also relies on the work of employees from neighbouring villages and towns (mainly Sderot and Ofakim), and the employees are reliant on Be’eri Print for their income; a senior member of Kibbutz Be’eri and renowned public figure (Chaim Yalin) says they are committed to providing for these employees and their families (Ynet above). Additionally, many organisations are dependent on Be’eri Print for producing essential documents for mailing to their customers (e.g., periodic report statements and billing invoices); disruption of the printing operations also threatens to disrupt the relationships of their clients with their own customers. Be’eri Print is therefore committed to ensure the continuity of outputs to its customers, further driving the rather quick return to operations.

In another critical challenge to illustrate the enhanced difficulties and risks: Be’eri Print entered recently a bid by the government to compete for the privatization of Israel Post — a public authority turned into government-controlled company that has been in deep financial and operational troubles for several years. In a meeting of a parliamentary committee, CEO Suchman asked the officials concerned in the matter of Israel Post to postpone the bid (by six months) to allow them a fair chance to compete successfully in the bid, explaining that the chaos they are experiencing these days does not enable them to be part of the bid process as ought to be. He said that this is exactly the time when they need actions more than hugs. Other ten competitors are participating in the bid. The Finance Ministry and the Government Companies Authority declined the request out of concern for the sustainability of Israel Post through further extended time (e.g., paying salaries) and sending away other investors (TheMarker, 20 November 2023, in Hebrew). However, the urgency of going through the bid seems exaggerated given the current situation in the country and that the troubles of Israel Post have gone long enough already. This is indeed a time when the government is expected to support companies in distress and can take some of the burden for allowing Be’eri Print in its acute circumstances to compete fairly.

On the one hand, winning this bid could be a crucial opportunity for Be’eri Print as an energy boost to recover from the crisis and revamp its business activity. On the other hand, the management has to consider how much taking over the operations of Israel Post and its obligations will demand of the company’s resources especially at this time (e.g., might exhaust resources before they are able to see the benefits from running the mail service agency). Additionally, undertaking the enterprise of postal services may distract Be’eri Print from its core competencies in technologically advanced and high-quality printing while ‘sinking’ into the logistics of mail distribution, yet also operating physical branches across the country. The Competition Authority (antitrust) expressed its own reservation about conflicting interests due to the existing involvement of the company in distribution through its subsidiary (Messer), which it will probably have to resolve. Another burning issue is the future of the Postal Bank service: will someone take it under its hospices, or is it doomed. This can be a complicated venture that Be’eri Print has to consider its repercussions carefully, particularly at this time.

Be’eri Print is bravely rising up to overcome the hurdles and challenges it is facing in the aftermath of catastrophe of the terrorist attack and to stand by its commitments to various stakeholders. All that has to be achieved with the tragedy of its community in the background. Recovery and restoration of the business will be a long process, it is agreed at the company. It is also bound with the recovery of Kibbutz Be’eri and the gradual return of the community to their homes (old and new). They depend on each other for healing. All is left is to wish them success in their endeavour.

Ron Ventura, Ph.D. (Marketing)

Sources (please note that all content below is in Hebrew):

Be’eri Print : About Us: history and background, Products

“Folding of Success”, the story of Ma’atafit in Be’eri Blog (4 July 2016)

Pix — the website of Be’eri Print for self-service customised printing by business customers.

An article in Ynet (Yediot newspaper, online) on return of Be’eri Print to business activity, 15 October 2023

An article in the TheMarker (business & economics newspaper, online) on the meeting concerning the bid for privatization of Israel Post at the parliamentary Knesset Economy Committee, 20 November 2023.

“Printing Hope”, Ma’ariv Business (weekend supplement of the newspaper), 8 December 2023