The company
London-based bookbinder and creator of fine art Henningham Family Press (HFP) is run by husband and wife team David and Ping Henningham. Artists in their own right, who have shown work at the Royal Academy of Art in London, the couple also use their kit for a range of print clients. Work completed for this side of the business includes screen printing, binding and foiling, as well as some inkjet work.
The aim
At the beginning of 2012, HFP was in the fortunate position of its art work gaining more and more traction with collectors worldwide and its services as a trade finisher becoming ever more popular.
"At first, the trade-finishing side of the business was very much a sideline to our fine art work," explains David. "However, we were increasingly being asked by printers to do bespoke foiling and binding work."
At the same time, Ping and David took a long look at their London Fields studio, tucked under the railway arches, and decided that they weren’t really getting their money’s worth.
"We were under-using the workshop. It is a major outlay to have lots of kit under one roof and we realised we simply were not using a lot of it frequently enough," says David.
The couple decided that a move away from the London Fields studio was required, while the increase in trade work demanded a shift from it being treated as a sideline operation to being an equal part of the business alongside the creation of art works.
Essentially, the plan was to reduce overheads while expanding the trade-finishing workload. Impossible, right? Well, no, actually. The answer is the creation of a cottage industry.
The method
The first step was to work out where this cottage industry would be. Fortunately, at the time when these discussions were taking place, the Henningham’s lodger moved out of their Dalston home and so suddenly there was a spare room. The decision was made to give the term ‘in house’ a literal manifestation.
They then had to work out what was going to go into this ‘cottage’ workshop.
"We went around the workshop and looked at each bit of kit in turn and asked how much we actually used it," explains Ping. "We put the stuff we rarely used in a workshop out in Essex and everything we used every day we put in our own house."
The latter included the foiling and bookbinding kit, as well as the inkjet printer. Their screen-printing equipment along with some other bits and bobs that weren’t often used were sent to a Havering workshop, where overheads were a lot cheaper than London Fields.
Having dramatically cut its running costs, HFP then set about defining this new trade business that had emerged organically into something that required attention.
"In switching the business to the cottage industry we also felt we needed to define the business in a clearer way between our art work and publishing under the HFP banner and our growing trade finishing side," explains David.
This change was not designed for the company’s existing print clients, who cared little what the company was called as long as it continued to produce high-quality finishing work. It was designed to cater for new clients and attract more business, as well as make things easier for everyone else. So HFP’s trade finishing arm became Dalston Bloc – a company with its own website (dalstonbloc.wordpress.com) and its own identity.
The result
Setting up a trade finishing company at a time when trade finishers are disappearing seemingly by the day may appear to be a foolish move but, for the Dalston Bloc, business is booming and the cottage industry set-up a success.
"We had no idea that trade finishing had been hit so hard," reveals David. "The thing is, it would not have put us off if we had known because, with all our work, people have found us rather than us finding them. We had become known for doing certain things, such as foiling, and we were approached on the back of that. So the work drove it, we did not drive the work. It has been word of mouth."
The low overheads are certainly a massive benefit and have contributed, says the couple, to making trade finishing work for them where others have failed. Also, working from home has given the couple more freedom, says Ping.
Whereas before, the workshop was under-used and entailed a commute, now that it is in their home, every inch of space is utilised and there is no commuting to eat into production time. Also, deliveries and pick-ups can be on a much more flexible basis as there is always someone there for the deliveries.
"We have a higher volume of work coming through now, but the logistics are also so much less. We have saved so much time and so have the flexibility of working in a much more reactive way," she says.
Having more time also means that the couple can give time to more unusual requests.
"We now have the time to experiment for clients or test ideas," says Ping. "We had a client the other week who wanted to foil on to aluminium sheets. We didn’t know whether it was possible, but we said we were willing to try so we charged by the hour and he came in and we tried it. It didn’t work but we were able to work out an alternative solution and that was great for both parties."
The verdict
The couple confess that the other option available to them would have been to shift to a smaller studio or even to expand the business further, such was the demand for their trade finishing services. However, having a large-scale operation has never been their aim.
"We could have moved into a smaller studio, but we didn’t see the point when we could bring those
everyday trades into the house," says Ping. "As for getting bigger, I think we are in a position where we would want to stay very hands on. We do not want to be a big company with all the paperwork and management that it entails. We want to work with our hands and in that sense the constraints of a cottage industry are also its benefits in keeping us hands on."
It is a decision that has paid off, and the service of very low runs at very high quality is something printers have clamoured to get a piece of, says David.
"I think the service we offer is in some ways something new to the printers, and that is part of the reason we are getting so much work," he says. "We do runs into the thousands, but we also do very small quantities, which means a printer can offer a service they could not before.
"If they accept a foiling job, they can farm it out to us instead of
buying the machine, training the staff and having the overheads incumbent with that. It saves time as well."
"From our perspective it works well too," adds Ping. "It takes out a lot of our own overheads of customer acquisition and management and the other processes."
That’s not to say the client element is not part of the Dalston Bloc agenda – as mentioned earlier, test cases and involvement in design and formulation are still part of what the company does. But the trade work does supply a steady stream of hassle-free work that allows those more involved clients extra time.
The future
The couple says there is plenty of scope for the business to grow further, with the ideal situation being a new foiling plate delivery each day.
To this end, Dalston Bloc is to be advertised more effectively as a finishing operation and David says some education will be needed too.
"We have plenty of room to grow," he explains. "We really do want more work, be it from printers or even from trade finishers so doing trade finishing on their finishing. We want to expand.
"The processes we use aren’t commonly used by artists and designers. They are used to screen printing but they do not know as much about foil blocking. We want to change that and get them used to foil blocking as a solution – as an alternative to letterpress for instance."
Ping adds that having a set client in mind, where quality is important, is also something the company wishes to maintain.
"With us, they are not going to Primark; they are going to John Lewis, and there seems to be a real need for that service and a willingness to pay for quality," she says.
Both concede that downscaling a business to becoming a cottage industry is not something that
would suit everyone, but, for both their art work and their trade finishing, it seems to have been the right solution for HFP, and it may give other trade finishers ideas for how they might make the trade finishing craft work.
COMMENT
How often does your sat nav fail?
Challenging times require
companies to make challenging, sometimes painful decisions, but a sustainable and profitable business will be worth it.
Philip Thompson, head of BPIF Business
