The Southend-on-Sea firm’s origins date back to 1980 and Essex Colour Services, which was a sister company to The White Dove Press and founded by the late Leo Smith and John Tebbutt. 

Over the years the firm's offering evolved as technology advances revolutionised repro, retouching and pre-media services.

EC2i was formed in November 2001 when the management team comprising Mark Dane, Gray Sergeant, Steve Fitzgerald, Steve Wallis (now retired) and the late David Heath bought the business. 

Dane retired in 2019 but still maintains his links with the company and the industry at large. 

Sergeant and Fitzgerald are now respectively managing director, production and managing director, technical. 

EC2i has its own photography studio

Today, the business employs more than 30 staff and has sales of £2.8m. It operates from an 812sqm facility that has recently been refurbished and redecorated, and has also revamped its website to mark the anniversary. 

Core services include photography for print, e-commerce and online; creative retouching; digital asset management; and multi-channel media campaigns. 

Sergeant said the firm had “a fantastic team and fantastic clients”.

“I’m pleased to say a lot of clients still require really high quality images. We handle thousands of images for all formats from web to catalogues, but our biggest skill set is the customer service we provide for our customers.”

EC2i’s client list spans a host of well-known brands including retailers, publishers and e-tailers. 

The firm has also developed its own Renaissance production workflow system that allows customers to manage and deploy their digital assets.