Business Inspection

How to start a franchise and grow with it

Risky business? Actually, becoming a franchisee is a lot less scary that it may seem.

Die-hard litho firm learns to love digital

Keith Whisson was not always a fan of digital print: “There are too many fools buying digital presses who don’t know much about print. It has brought the value of print, which used to be a prosperous...

Set up a sibling to assist a new endeavour

Peerless is almost peerless, and that was the challenge. The plastics and coatings company is one of the UK’s largest and best known specialists in creating UV-cured hard coatings for plastics that...

A timely buy can expand your abilties

Peter Llewellyn and his team are good at filling gaps: first it was the town, then it was digital print. Now it’s foiling.

Cleaner and dryer days with LE-UV

Picture the scene. A client calls and urgently needs a job printed on uncoated stock, finished and ready by tomorrow. Not a difficult scenario to envisage in this day and age, but a job that many...

Digital spend unwraps a fresh market

The rise and rise of artisanal food shops, craft breweries and other niches in food and drink sectors sends out growth opportunities not only for the home-spun businesses and micro distillers that...

Take your site to the next level

Dean Johnson knew he had to expand his horizons when he could barely see any horizon at all. The family sign-making business he runs was so chock-full of equipment and bustling with staff and walk-in...

Capitalising on the trend for printed textiles

James Birch can sense when he’s on to a good thing and this time he can feel it too: fabrics. Last week saw the official launch of a textile-printing arm of the company he directs, Colourgrpahics....

Show business: why there’s no business like it

Miles Linney takes a “lucky coin”. That’s because at trade shows and exhibitions luck can be a big help. Visiting shows, insists Linney Group’s chief executive, is a must, even if attending a big...

A facelift can be more than just skin deep

When Scott Pearce and business partner Mark Gamble bought what was then called Datumpress in an MBO in 2008, due to the retirement of boss and company founder Alan Willis, it had a relatively small...