In 1995, Steve Robson, managing director of Power Print UK, was made redundant by the North East Electricity Board (NEEB). In the process, he effectively won his current company's first contract - one it has retained for the 15 years since.
Robson was the print manager at NEEB's in-house facility in Newcastle when the decision was made to close it. He bought most of the equipment "for a good price" and set up his own company, taking on the NEEB contract.

Back then, the company had only a few staff, with very little turnover to speak of - recording just £70,000 in its first year. Now it has 24 employees and is currently turning over £1.25m. Robson has branched out since starting up and his Gateshead location now hosts three companies that are connected at director level, but operate separately.

Power Print is the largest business on the site and the newest is Craig Print, a digital brand Robson set up three months ago to diversify into digital print. It currently has a turnover of around £250,000.

According to Robson, the digital element will allow the company to target a number of areas. "We can now handle a combination of run lengths," he explains. "We have always been able to handle a couple of million leaflets, but we want to be able to take on the small-run jobs, those that are less than 100,000, as well."

Also on site is textile printer Spirits Print and Embroidery, which is run by Ian Potts - also a director at Power Print UK. This operates separately, but shares the same factory space and associated rent.

Accelerated growth
Power Print grew steadily in its early days. However, in recent years, things have really accelerated. This has been partly down to Robson bringing in Tony Ellis as a director. Ellis has a wealth of experience, having previously held roles at, among others, Communisis, St Ives Direct and Rexam Envelopes.

When approached, Ellis said that he jumped at the chance to join Power Print. "The opportunity to run a business was too good an opportunity to miss," he explains.

Ellis was instrumental in the introduction of digital print to the business and has set his sights on achieving a turnover of £3m in the next five years - either through continued growth or acquisition. Of the equipment Robson first brought on board, only a Polar 92 AMC guillotine is still "chugging away". Slowly but surely, Power Print has replaced the rest of its existing kit and is beginning a third cycle of new machines, with a Heidelberg five-colour Speedmaster 72 next in line to be replaced in 2010 or 2011. Last month, the company installed a System 5000 Bookletmaker from Duplo and, according to Ellis, the machine has allowed the company to maintain a fast turnaround.

Rather than fill up its presses all day, every day, Power Print maintains schedule gaps so that it can deal with emergency jobs - a philosophy that Robson has always tried to stick to throughout his career.

"If we have three days of work lined up a week, we are happy," he says. "We are known as a fast turnaround printer. We might get a customer come to us at lunchtime with 300,000 leaflets for south-east England for the next morning, we can do that. That is why we want to be able to do as much in-house as possible, and the Duplo is key in that."
According to Robson, the fast turnaround ability has helped the company to be more competitive, enabling it to "dictate its own price".

Winning philosophy
This philosophy has kept the company in business since 1995 and, even in times of financial instability, it has maintained a decent amount of work, Robson says. "We have a good mix of work, which enables us to maintain our capacity. We don't tend to have a short period; there always tends to be work on the presses," he explains.

Perhaps what makes Power Print's achievements over the past few years most impressive, is a self-confessed lack of knowledge about marketing and promotion. Robson admits that one of the company's next steps is to "become known by more people", but it has achieved everything so far by relying on word of mouth.

With more efforts put into a concerted marketing campaign, even more opportunities for growth may just open up for this former electricity board in-house printer.

Power Print Uk Group
Managing director Steve Robson
Based Gateshead
Staff 24
Turnover £1.25m
Kit includes Heidelberg Speedmaster 72 and 74, Polar Guillotine, Ryobi two-colour, Duplo System 5000 Bookletmaker