Andy Bird does not like to be pigeon-holed, which is unfortunate because, by his own admission, his company gets pigeon-holed a lot. Bristol-based Folio Print Finishing is a trade finisher, but managing director Bird is desperate for people to realise how much the company can offer.

"People don't realise what we can do," he sighs. "We offer such an expansive range of services, I would argue we are the most versatile finisher in the country, but people just see us as being whatever we do for them. We have added so many new strings to our bow in recent years, we want to be the first place people go for all their finishing."

Indeed, the company has spent £300,000 adding two new processes in the past year, wire binding and lamination, adding a second Tauler laminator earlier this month (see page 12).

It is the latest in a long line of new services that the company has added over the 20 years since Bird and then joint managing director Ed McCluskey set the company up. Initially, it offered perfect binding and saddle stitching, but down the years, remoist gumming, PUR binding, miniature finishing and die-cutting, among others, have come on board.

Bringing wire binding in last year was something of a renaissance for Bird, who originally looked into it in the early 1990s. Back then, a local company, Cotswold Finishers, was offering the service, so Folio steered clear of it. But last year, Cotswold announced plans to close.

Bird says: "While they did it, we always said we would stay out of it. I rang to give managing director Alan Churchill my condolences when he said it was closing and to ask if he needed anything. He called back and asked ‘would you like to take it on?' He now runs that department for us."

Community spirit
It is not the first time Bird has done a favour for a fellow finisher. He started in finishing as an apprentice at Avalon Print, working for Steve Fearnley. When Avalon made Fearnley redundant, Bird had no hesitation in employing his former boss. Now a fellow shareholder, Fearnley has been with the company for 17 years.

The company's progressive growth means it is spread across several units at its Bristol location and Bird has taken to knocking holes in the walls to connect them. He believes that this range of services allows him to offer a full finishing job.

"People may look around and find something that seems cheaper," he says. "But, actually, with everything under one roof, it will be cheaper to send it to one place. We can control the whole process, put it on and pull it off machines at our pace. If a customer wants to make adjustments we can do that, if some of the work is going out, you can't do that.

"We take responsibility for the entire job. And with our experience, we can tell the printer how best to print it so we can provide the best quality."

Like many other finishers, Bird is keen to champion the cause of the final piece of the print puzzle, claiming that he wants to "bring finishing to the fore". And he believes the end-user, as well as the printer, can help in pushing new ideas.
He says: "It doesn't have to be bland, even one piece of paper can be made to look interesting. It is about getting the end-user intrigued enough to do something different."

In growing its services, Folio has grown as well. However, this has brought a number of problems for Bird. For a start, he finds it difficult to be the "big boss". The first seven employees he hired are still with the company, so he is a friend as much as their manager.

And, by his own admission, he has a small-time mentality. But his £3m-turnover company now employs around 55 people. As a result, the company employed former Stevens & George group production director Paul Cook to play "bad cop" to Bird's "good cop", but also to offer something extra in the decision making.

Bird says: "We needed somebody with large-company experience. He doesn't have the closeness to the company that I do. His views are less personal, so every decision is in the interest of the business and I think we need that."
Cook's experience could come in handy going forward.   Bird still has big plans for the company and expects it to grow further still over the next few years.

A warning, though. Bird should be careful. If the company continues to grow apace, both in size and products, he could find himself pigeon-holed - as the managing director of a successful and versatile trade finisher.

Folio print finishing
Formed 1989
Based Bristol
Managing director Andy Bird
Turnover £3m
Employees 55
Services include die-making, cutting and creasing, platen-punching, lamination, wallet making, multiple folding, stitching and binding services, thread sewing, remoist gumming, gluing, mailing and personalisation