In 1945, fresh from service in the Navy, 22-year-old baker Douglas Denny teamed up with his younger brother, apprentice printer Russell, and invested his demob pay in a small jobbing print firm in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Denny Bros was born out of commercial print; its future would be about innovation.
In the 1960s and 1970s, we were always on the lookout for speciality products, says Barry Denny, son of Douglas. Barry joined straight from school in 1965, working his way up to be the first managing director when it became a limited company in 1984.
In this time, he witnessed many milestones in print, not least the shift from letterpress to litho. He was there too as Denny Bros passed its own watershed in innovation when it launched multipage label system Fix-a-Form in the late 1970s. Thanks to success in the pharmaceutical industry, the label system has transformed Denny Bros from the 15-staff printer Barry joined into a 150-strong international business.
The £7.5m-turnover company’s healthy margins have repeatedly put it to the top of the operating profit tables in the PrintWeek Top 500. Last year, it was reported as having a 22.7% margin. Barry says the margins are good because we have good products, we charge a realistic price and we’re efficient.
The multinational approach has been another windfall. In 1982, a visiting South African printer became the first overseas firm licensed to produce the labels. By the mid 1980s, worldwide demand for the proprietary system was such that Fix-a-Form International (FFI) was established to coordinate global operations. At the helm of £2m-turnover FFI is Barry’s cousin Andrew Denny, son of founding brother Russell.
While Barry never thought about doing anything else but printing, Andrew took a more circuitous route into the business. After a degree in engineering, he qualified as a chartered accountant before joining Denny Bros and finally became FFI managing director 14 years ago.
Global growth
His company now manages licensee arrangements in 24 countries, for which it earns an annual fee. It has just signed up its first Chinese licensee, Win Labels, and recently entered into its first joint venture with a partner, Indian printer Unick Fix-a-Form. Andrew says it took the stake to get a bigger piece of the sub-continental consumer explosion. Andrew says FFI is the first port of call when licensees require technical help, production expertise or other advice. We’re actually the marketing department for a lot of the licensees. Its international outlook garnered it the BPIF-Printing World Global Business award last year.
However, there is a downside to global recognition: brand infringement. The company has had to deal with patent infringement in the past and Andrew is aware of one or two people who are currently infringing, but it’s not always worth the fees to take legal action. We just keep an eye on what they’re doing, he says.
Barry is similarly pragmatic about patent disputes. Patents are of some importance. But it’s not what the business is built on. It’s built on good products and good service. Patents just give you a head start.
To this end, customer service is key, says Andrew. If you can’t provide what the customer wants when they want it, you’re dead. This ethos is made more difficult when you take into account that FFI deals with customers on every continent other than Antarctica, not only Fix-a-Form licensed printers, but end-users such as multinational healthcare companies and big-name fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands.
Those sectors offer Denny Bros a ray of light on the gloomy economic horizon. Our biggest sector is the healthcare industry, which is meant to be recession proof. I’m not pessimistic, says Barry.
The high street is another staging area for future success, says Andrew. We see a lot of growth in the promotional side of FMCG. We’re actually seeing more enquiries on that side. As brand managers look for inexpensive ways to push their products, Fix-a-Form puts them, literally, at the consumer’s fingertips.
DENNY BROS FACTFILE
Staff 150
Established 1945
Based Bury St Edmunds
Turnover Denny Bros: £7.5m
Turnover Fix-a-Form International: £2m
Sectors Labelling (pharmaceuticals, FMCG)
