A lot can change in 100 years, but it doesn't necessarily have to. While Bookbinders of London (BOL) is launching a new website, adding new staff, new kit and new services, it still remains in the hands of its founding family, four generations down the line, and is also still operating from the purpose-built bindery just off Holloway Road in north London in which it was established in the 1890s.

The father and uncle of current managing director Ian Bailey went straight into the business in their teens after the Second World War. Initially, Ian was reluctant to join the family firm, but finally relented in the 1980s and has been in charge since the turn of the century. He says: "I took the easy option to join the family business in the end, but I wanted to be a marine."
In its heyday, BOL employed 200 craftsmen and it occupied its entire four-storey building. However, it has contracted over the years and is currently down to just five staff on one floor.

Bailey says: "Over the years, we have had to shrink to survive when times were difficult. Now a lot of the building is rented out to offices. Being small means you can react quickly. We have never over-committed to something that could dry up, never over exposed ourselves to something.

"Our current plans involve growing again. We are expanding at the moment and will soon take up the whole of the bottom floor again. As part of the current expansion, we are employing two new staff and I would expect our employee numbers to double in the next year."

Reactive business
One of the key areas of growth that Bailey is targeting is short-run, digitally printed books. The self-publisher is one of BOL's most important customers.

He explains: "Anybody can be a publisher, you don't need to commit to run lengths of 3,000. It is now so accessible, so cost effective to self publish."

The company had already forged a reputation as a reactive business under Ian's father's rule. In the early 1990s, when times were tough, he decided to go after the student market, not a bad idea considering its location a stone's throw from London Metropolitan University. BOL offers a number of services for students' theses and dissertations, including a one-hour while-you-wait service.

"You will pay a premium for the one-hour service," says Bailey. "We wouldn't recommend it unless you absolutely needed it. But then I wouldn't recommend A&E to someone, but it is there if you absolutely need it."

New venture
The company is now on the verge of launching a photobook service, expected to be online later this month. It is actually an idea that Bailey had about ten years ago, but the kit wasn't around for BOL to be able to take advantage. Now that digital printing quality is up, the company has invested in a Xerox 700 and Bailey believes BOL is perfectly placed to become a market leader.

He says: "It is definitely something that will fit with what we offer. Most people approach it from the print end, but we have added a press to our binding expertise. I would much rather learn the digital end than the binding end. Our knowledge is in binding, we have guys that have been here 40 years. I wouldn't want to set up a bindery from scratch."

Despite the current doom and gloom in the print industry, Bailey would be happy for the business to move into its fifth generation, especially with the new innovations around.

He says: "If you had asked me if I wanted my children to join the company two years ago, I would have said no. Now I would say yes. The industry is a lot more exciting, the technology, the pace of development, it is such a steep curve. The capabilities we can provide now, we couldn't do that in the past."

During his 20 years in the industry, Bailey has seen a lot of changes and has had to react and adapt his company in accordance. But in bookbinding, he feels that one thing will never change.

"I am very inspired at the moment," he says. "But bookbinding is something that always brings a high level of satisfaction. It is something that you can take pride in. When you hand that book over, their book, and see the smile on their face, you get a lot of satisfaction. That is something that has never changed."

Bookbinders of London
Formed 1890s
Location north London
Managing director Ian Bailey
Staff five
Services offered thesis binding, book binding, photobook production