The Ask Agency established

Former Acorn employees launch print agency

Pete Copper (L) and Jason Lewis (R) have launched The Ask Agency

A print agency founded by two former employees of Swindon’s shuttered Acorn Press has been met with a wave of enthusiasm after launching just a day after Acorn officially ceased trading.

The Ask Agency, founded by Peter Copper and Jason Lewis on 1 February, has flown off the starting block, fielding over 100 enquiries in its first week.

Originally envisaged as a smaller merchandising print management agency that would pick up some work alongside Copper and Lewis’ day jobs, The Ask Agency was forced to launch rapidly as Acorn Press went into insolvency in late January with the loss of all 59 employees’ jobs.

“Given what happened on the 31st, we were in a very good position to pivot – we were quite lucky, really,” Copper, who had been at Acorn for just nine months as a print consultant, told Printweek.

“I had already put in some background work for the website about two years ago while I was at Dayfold, when I was thinking about potentially going into agency work after that job. 

“I was more looking at the merchandising route, because it’s something that neither Dayfold or Acorn had.”

Copper and Lewis had coincidentally gone to Merchandising World’s two-day New Year Event on 23 January, thinking of instead bringing merchandising print into Acorn Press, rather than go it alone.

“Jason came with me,” Copper said, “and was blown away by what was possible.”

Deciding to make a go of it themselves, they sent articles of incorporation to Companies House the same day, “just so that we had something ready to go, as and when we decided to go for it”.

Just a week later, Acorn Press shut its doors.

“It was scary, especially being somewhere for such a long time,” Lewis told Printweek.

“But I’ve wanted to [set up on my own] for six or seven years, and this has given me that push. I’m looking at the positives, of getting to go into business with a close friend, but it’s been tough.

“We could see it was tough in the industry in terms of sales, but it was a case of having a plan B, because I could see a few things that weren’t quite right.”

Sadly, Lewis said, many of his former colleagues may decide to drop out of the trade altogether.

“I don’t believe that everybody will stay in print, certainly not local. Obviously we’ve got ESP in Swindon too, and they’ll do what they can, but we’re starting to look a bit thin in terms of local printers, unfortunately.”

ESP chief executive Simon Smogur has confirmed to Printweek that the company has managed to take on around three former Acorn employees.

For now, The Ask Agency is taking work from across the spectrum of print while the company gets on its feet.

“We’re pretty much trying to tick every box we humanly can. My experience is more towards merchandise and wide-format, and Jason’s is more around litho,” said Copper.

“We’ve been in the trade a long time. I’ve got nearly 25 years of print behind me, and I still have the passion for it,” added Lewis.

The Ask Agency may just be two weeks old, but Copper and Lewis have set out plans for the future.

Once they have secured office space, the goal will be to grow a small team.

“Longer term, we’d like to grow the team and give young talent a chance,” said Copper.

“Obviously right now we’re thinking about people falling out of the industry at the far end of their careers, but we’ve got keep people feeding in from the bottom. So if we can give people an opportunity to get into the print or merchandising industry and help them grow, then I see no downsides.”

Note: Acorn Press Swindon is entirely unconnected to Normanton, West Yorkshire-based printer Acorn Web Offset.