Here to celebrate one of the industry’s key print-generating dates (imagine, if you can bear it, receiving a Valentine’s e-card), are some of the sector’s finest, and most loved-up, print power couples...
Tara & Alan Pickles, marketing manager at GI Solutions, and operations director at Clinical Print Finishing
How to reassure yourself that your wife is still totally besotted with you after 14 years of marriage? Pick a house that’s in desperate need of modernising, just because it’s perfectly situated just 2.4 miles from your favourite golf course.
“The house had this fabulous, elaborate, huge conservatory, but not much else!” recalls Tara Pickles of when she and husband Alan first bought their current home in Leicester, seven years ago.
Tara’s understanding of her hubby’s love of golf also extends to accompanying him on golfing trips abroad, such as to see the USPGA in 2012. Fortunately the pair have a love of walking in local Midland beauty spots, such as the Derbyshire’s Dove Valley, in common too.
The couple met when Alan was production manager at Senator Print Finishers and Tara was a customer, an account manager for Chromoworks. “We were friends for a long time first, and then he just asked me out,” reports Tara. “I never really thought about it being awkward if it didn’t work out, at the time. So it’s a good job it did!”
In fact, those first dates could potentially have been another test, had the pair not been so crazy about each other. And print. “I remember one of our earliest dates was spent with me writing out work bags, pre-computerised of course!” recalls Alan. Now that’s romance.
Tara on Alan
What first attracted you to the other person?
He quoted Shakespeare to me.
What’s it like both working in print?
It helps us appreciate when the other has work pressure.
What’s the geekiest print conversation you’ve had outside of work?
The benefits and limitations of perfect binding.
Who does what at home?
Al plays golf; I do everything else.
What’s the other’s most annoying habit?
He is obsessed with US TV shows like Storage Wars, Pawn Stars and American Pickers and could happily watch them 24 hours.
Who do you love more: other half...or print?!
Definitely Al.
What do you most love about the other person?
He’s never home...!
Alan on Tara
What first attracted you to the other person?
She was a customer and I just fancied her!
What’s it like both working in print?
We worked together at Colorgraphic back in the 1990s. I was running the finishing department and Tara was an account manager so we did not cross paths too often. As long as she got her file copies on time things were fine!
What’s the geekiest print conversation you’ve had outside of work?
Either about colour seperation or augmented reality, neither of which I fully understand.
Who does what at home?
I do the DIY and keep the telly ticking over. Tara pays the cleaner.
What’s the other’s most annoying habit?
She’s unable to shut any kind of door quietly.
Who do you love more: other half...or print?!
Definitely the wife.
What do you most love about the other person?
Her understanding of the joy, pain and time demands of golf.
Dani Novick & Ian Roe, managing director and director at Mercury Search & Selection
If Don’t tell the Bride is anything to go by, having their grooms plan the entire wedding is most brides’ nightmare. But not Dani Novick.
Her other half, Ian Roe, in fact planned every element of their day 10 years ago, down to every flower arrangement and colour coordinated napkin, and the not so small details of getting Dani’s family over from South Africa.
“Our wedding is an example of what an amazing man Ian is,” says Dani. “For me getting married was just another contract. I said ‘we can just do it one lunchtime in a register office’. But he arranged everything. He just said ‘get a dress and turn up’. And it was the most magnificent wedding.”
This milestone very much epitomises the dynamic between the duo, who have been running the Mercury recruitment agency together for seven years. “I’ll come up with a big idea and he’ll assess its ‘do-ablility’ and make it happen,” reports Dani.
The couple met when Ian was a client of Dani’s at Key Recruitment. “We just hit it off. I loved working with him; he was incredibly demanding!” says Dani, adding that it was definitely she who did the pursuing.
Today the couple have relocated from the countryside to live in Chester with their four-year-old son Max and new baby girl Ariella. Not that Ian has given up dreams of retreating back eventually, according to Dani: “We’ve turned into total townies now, but Ian still has all his country pursuit equipment, like a hydraulic log-splitter!”
But something tells us this couple won’t be packing in their hectic, high-powered lifestyle for escaping back to the country too soon...
Dani on Ian
What first attracted you to the other person?
His big... brain. He’s incredibly knowledgeable about the widest and most obscure topics.
What’s it like working together?
It works very well. We both perform entirely different functions in the business and have the utmost respect for each other’s ability. So we are never treading on each other’s toes.
What’s the geekiest print conversation you’ve had outside of work?
Pretty much every shopping trip or holiday results in very geeky conversations as we analyse print and packaging all the time!
Who does what at home?
Ian cooks, I eat.
What’s the other’s most annoying habit?
It’s also one of his greatest qualities – he’s obsessive, I mean very obsessive. Whatever he is into at work or home he does it to the n-th degree.
Who do you love more: other half...or print?!
Dumb question!
What do you most love about the other person?
His big... brain – his lasagne is a close second.
Ian on Dani
What first attracted you to the other person?
She’s very exciting to be with, so full of energy, passion and drive – you can’t help getting caught up.
What’s it like working together?
Very good. You have to be professional and have a high level of trust for it to work. We each play to our strengths and trust each other so we don’t second guess each other.
What’s the geekiest print conversation you’ve had outside of work?
Everyone in the industry ends up picking things up and thinking ‘how did they do that?’ or ‘that’s clever’.
Who does what at home?
Whoever happens to be there at the time. We do whatever needs doing.
What’s the other’s most annoying habit?
She’s very self critical and always trying to improve. The plus side is she holds other people to these same high standards.
Who do you love more: other half...or print?!
So obvious I don’t think that merits an answer.
What do you most love about the other person?
Dani is the most passionate person I know. Whether it is an assignment, her work in general, food, art, travel, she throws herself into it 100%.
Jacky & Brian Sidebottom, sales director and managing director at Glossop Cartons
It’s an age-old story: eyes locking across the sixth-form disco, sharing a first kiss to Nights in White Satin...
But not many school romances turn out as well as Jacky and Brian Sidebottom’s. Several decades down the line and the couple are at the helm of a nearly £5m-turnover carton printing business. And even more impressively, still very much in love despite the trials that running such a successful business together, since the tender age of 20, must inevitably bring.
Jacky explains that in fact being able to talk, or sometimes argue, frankly, is actually no bad thing.
“You look at some business partners and they row like mad, but never really get any issues resolved because what they really want to say they can’t because it’s impolite,” says Jacky. “In a couple you say it and then get on with it. That’s what works so well.”
She adds: “I’m the hot-head, Brian’s much more the calm, methodical thinker. He reins me in.”
In their spare time, the pair do another very different kind of reining in, living on a farm with horses, cats, dogs, goats and chickens, and attending horse shows in the summer.
Not that preparing dinner’s one of the tasks the Sidebottoms have to schedule into an already jam-packed day of work and tending the farm. Now their 27-year-old son and 19-year-old daughter have left home (“the kids used to get really cross because most topics of conversation were about work, but it’s not a problem now because they’ve both left!” quips Brian), the pair tend to suit themselves.
“I’d say the standard of food has gone down in our house. We’re likely to have a ready-meal for tea now,” says Jacky. “We’re like carefee youngsters again!”
Jacky on Brian
What first attracted you to the other person?
It was Nights in White Satin smooch song at the sixth-form disco that got us together... plus he had a car!
What’s it like working together?
It can be very explosive working together, as we are very different people, with different views of how things should be done. My views are always correct of course!
What’s the geekiest print conversation you’ve had outside of work?
Ohh err... it can be pillow talk sometimes!
Who does what at home?
We are both equally hands-on doing tasks at home. Brian tends to do more heavy work: tractor driving, bale-banding, wagon jobs, etc. I do the show preparation of the horses. We’re neither of us very big on the housework front!
What’s the other’s most annoying habit?
Brian is called ‘SA’. It’s short for smart arse! He fixes all sorts and is most often correct with an idea or solution... but it can be irritating!
Who do you love more: other half...or print?!
Well, it’s got to be Brian of course! I just wish I could clone him.
What do you most love about the other person?
Without going mushy, he knows me inside out, good and bad points. And he supports me with any new ventures or ideas I have. I know I drive him mad as I don’t do patience and he does get exasperated with me! He also makes a mean latte coffee for me on a Sunday night while I have my feet up!
Brian on Jacky
What first attracted you to Jacky?
I fell for Jacky at a very early age, about 14 years old, when she put a stick through the spokes of my bicycle. I only found out it was her many years into our relationship
What’s it like working together?
It’s like home from home. Considering that we are very different personalities we rarely argue. In fact whether at home or work, any argument is usually work-related not domestic.
What’s the geekiest print conversation you’ve had outside of work?
On a beach in 38° discussing the cost of gadgets and gizmos on our next machine purchase.
Who does what at home?
Um, I stack the dishwasher! Other than that we have the equivalent of a children’s zoo at home where I do all the heavy work (got my own tractor to help me) and Jacky pampers the animals (the horses mainly).
What’s the other’s most annoying habit?!
A lack of patience. In the next minute is too late!
Who do you love more: other half...or print?!
Jacky! (I couldn’t give any other answer because she’s going to read this, but really it’s our Euclid!)
What do you most love about the other person?
After being together for 34 years and knowing each other so well, it’s impossible to choose one thing, so I guess my answer is almost everything about her.
Vanessa & Andrew Jones, head of corporate development and managing director at Stephens & George Print Group
Managing director of Stephens & George Print Group Andrew apparently swept now other-half Vanessa off her feet with a waltz when they met in a nightclub back in 1991.
He made sure to balance this out by then playing it cool, though: “I took her number and probably waited three weeks before I rang her!” he remembers.
It wasn’t long before Vanessa was swept up with the printing bug too, leaving her job in financial services to work at Andrew’s firm in 2005.
“It works very well,” reports Andrew. “Vanessa is very good at looking at the HR side of the business. She’s responsible for the marketing of the business and she’s done a fantastic job with that. And she’s involved with the sales teams because she was in a sales job previously.”
Inevitably work doesn’t finish for the pair at 5.30, with the couple’s three children having heard their fair share of deliberations over the years. “It’s impossible not to take work home. Even our children become embroiled in discussions about the business,” reports Vanessa.
Even socialising tends to be with fellow print folk or clients, with Andrew and Vanessa often combining work with pleasure and visiting clients in London even when they’re meant to be there just for the latter.
Around five weeks a year skiing is how the pair reward themselves for all the hard work tough. And very well-deserved too, it seems.
Vanessa on Andrew
What first attracted you to the other person?
Andrew’s accent, his black tie and being asked to waltz while everyone else was rocking, which just about sums us up!
What’s it like working together?
I work for Andrew, and our roles are totally different. What he doesn’t know about machinery, production and paper probably isn’t worth knowing. I just like dealing with people, whether that’s customers, our sales team or employees.
What’s the geekiest print conversation you’ve had outside of work?
We don’t really talk about print as such, but about business strategies and planning growth for the future.
Who does what at home?
I do...!
What’s the other’s most annoying habit?
Not doing anything at home.
Who do you love more: other half or print!?
I couldn’t love Andrew without loving print as he lives, eats and breathes print – as did his father and grandfather.
What do you most love about the other person?
Andrew is the only man strong enough to deal with me!
Andrew on Vanessa
What first attracted you to the other person?
Her good looks and exotic dancing!
What’s it like working together?
We have an excellent working relationship. Vanessa is a very good people person and complements my working lifestyle very well.
What’s the geekiest print conversation you’ve had outside of work?
Print conversations don’t really take place. It’s more about the global issues within and beyond the business.
Who does what at home?
Vanessa’s pretty good at it all, as she would rather do it herself!
What’s the other’s most annoying habit?
Wanting to do everything herself!
Who do you love more: other half or print?!
Of course I love Vanessa more than print!
What do you most love about the other person?
Her personality and her strength. If there is something that needs saying to anyone, Vanessa is the one to say it.
