According to the company, the scheme makes Leicester-based FastAnt, which runs an HP Indigo 5000, an HP Scitex FB7600 and Konica Minolta kit on the digital side of its operation, one of the first printers in the UK to run a programme dedicated to training graduates in digital print sales.
Andrew Briggs and Jade McGowan-Young, both graduates of Leeds Beckett University, joined the company in September via recruitment agency Pareto Law, which specialises in recruiting and training graduates specifically for sales positions.
The pair will receive intensive sales and negotiation training from both Pareto Law and the Taylor Bloxham Group, along with an internal digital printing skills programme supported by HP and its Dscoop initiative. Taylor Bloxham sales manager Neil Tracey will manage and coordinate the training programme.
FastAnt managing director Matthew Wennington said the programme was a method of introducing a new team with no pre-conceived ideas of print.
He said: “We launched the programme because we're a well established printing company but I felt that we've not grasped the digital side of the print as well as we could do.
“We're very technically advanced with regard to some of the variable data items and cross media we do but my sales team haven't been as successful in bringing in digital work as we'd like them to be.
“The programme starts with a vanilla-flavoured sales person who has all the necessary key attributes present. Then we sprinkle on the hundreds and thousands that is the understanding of digital solution selling.”
FastAnt, which has 55 staff, is hoping to have invested in a B2 digital press by this time next year. “FastAnt's the biggest area for growth in the group. We see that digital volumes are increasing and digital works perfectly in tune with what we do,” said Wennington.
Meanwhile the Taylor Bloxham Group, which includes Taylor Bloxham, FastAnt Direct and Instore, has received 18001 health and safety accreditation from URS Certification.
The accreditation, which demonstrates efficiency and consistency in injury prevention and commitment to health and safety in the workplace, is the first accreditation received at group level.
Taylor Bloxham Group chief executive Chris Bowen said: “We have always held the health and safety of our staff as the number one priority in the company and are proud of our health and safety record.
“Gaining this accreditation is formal recognition that we have world-class processes and procedures in play and perfectly complements our ISO 9001 quality and ISO 14001 environmental accreditations.”
The Taylor Bloxham Group, which has a turnover of around £24.8m, offers litho and digital print, storage and fulfilment and cross media services to customers in a range of industries including retail and publishing.
