The company teamed up with the Waterside Shopping Centre in Lincoln after it invited St Barnabas to raise money for its cause by wrapping shoppers’ presents in return for a donation.
Three different types of paper were printed in turquoise, dark blue and red. The paper was designed by the company’s in-house team and subtly features the logos of St Barnabas, the Waterside Shopping Centre and Allen Signs.
1,500 metres of paper was printed in total on 100gsm stock with a silk finish. The printing was outsourced to a trade printer that Allen Signs uses as part of its printing.com partnership and was carried out on a four-colour B1 Komori litho press.
Allen Signs director Glen Merryweather said: “We’ve done a lot of fundraising this year, so it was a no-brainer for us to cap it off by supporting St Barnabas this Christmas, which cares for a lot of people locally.
“We’d rather provide a product than just a financial donation, so when we were asked to donate the wrapping paper we thought that instead of buying cheap rolls of paper we’d get something bespoke printed.
“1,500 metres of wrapping paper is the same length as 75 double decker buses, so we’ve made sure they have enough paper to raise a significant sum.”
Allen Signs, which has offices in Lincoln and Nottingham, also donated two cardboard printed FSDUs; a Santa sleigh with reindeer and a Christmas tree, which were printed in-house on its 2017-installed EFI H1625 LED flatbed printer and finished using a Protek Unico cutter. Furthermore, the business will send staff to the shopping centre to help wrap presents later this week.
Caroline Swindin, corporate fundraiser at St Barnabas, said: “Christmas is a magical time of the year, and we are very grateful to the Waterside Centre and Allen Signs who've come together to deliver this fantastic, time-saving idea.
“Wrapping presents can be really frustrating if you're not very good at it, so this will save people time and make their gifts look amazing. All of the money raised will go towards helping people over Christmas and beyond.”
Earlier this year, four of Allen Signs’ staff completed the Three Peaks Challenge, raising more than £4,000 for charity in the process.
The company, which took on a new apprentice in the summer, currently employs 17 staff and turns over around £1.2m. In 2015 it acquired the printing division of Double Red, which now operates independently under the name Double Red Print.
