Browne started in the role on 5 June, having been with Antalis for eight years prior, most recently as product manager for its sign and display division. He had previously worked with the Commercial Foundation in helping organise 'Dragons’ Den Days' for the We Do Print programme while at Antalis, and had also advised on the procurement of equipment.
The Commercial Foundations also incorporates We Do Leadership and We Do IT, all of which employ disadvantaged young people and give them the personal and professional skills to ready themselves for a career.
Browne said he received a call “out of the blue” from Commercial Foundations co-founder Symon Hindmarch-Bye whilst working on Antalis’ stand at March’s Sign & Digital trade expo. The 35-year-old said that once the offer had been made it was a “no brainer” on whether to take it on. He replaces Natalie and Luke Wadley, who were running the Foundation on a joint basis.
“It’s such a unique opportunity to be able to run a business at such a young age,” said Browne.
“To help disadvantaged young adults get into work and education, you don’t normally get to do that. We’re making lots of progress and looking at new equipment to boost production. We will now look to ramp up the programme a bit to get more people through."
Hindmarch-Bye said: “Mark is a sound bloke that knows everything about print. The reason he wanted to join us was to widen his experience because what we have done so well is engaged with so many young people and absolutely pushed the barriers of print across the UK with Antalis, so it was a brilliant match.”
One of Browne’s first decisions as head was to invest in a Duplo DC-616 Pro slitter-cutter-creaser, which will come into We Do Print’s Gloucestershire premises next week. The machine processes up to 10spm and can perform up to six slits, 25 cuts and 20 creases in a single pass.
Browne said: “It just boosts our production and finishing capabilities. It’s a bit of a bottleneck at the moment, we can get the print through the machines but it’s taking a long time to get work cut and finished so this will boost our capabilities and open up more opportunities.”
The print arm also runs a Xerox C70 printer, an Epson small-format dye-sublimation machine, a guillotine, a Watkiss bookletmaker and a Makerbot 3D Replicator Plus, the latter two of which were installed earlier this year. It is now considering investing in kit from the likes of Ricoh or Konica Minolta.
Browne, who is one of five full-time Commercial Foundation staff, will soon look to up the number of young people that go through each three-month We Do Print programme, which currently stands at eight.
86% of the 54 that have been through its doors have gone on to secure paid work or further training, one of which is Samuel Jackson, a founding member and winner of PrintWeek's 2016 Trainee of the Year Award.
