The company set up funeralprintingdirect.co.uk in March to provide orders of service, announcements and thank you cards for customers. Mugs2go.co.uk followed soon after in April, providing printed mugs on request.
Established in 2016 by managing director Tim Roberts, Future Print Leeds has been offering commercial print to local clients since its inception and branched out into printing NCR pads and sets last year with its website ncrprintonline.co.uk.
Roberts said: “With the way the market works for printers these days, it’s hard to come out just selling general commercial print and hope to be able to compete. You need to be able to identify niche markets that you can make the most of.
“I first found this when we moved into NCR printing – a lot of other printers do not like to print NCR so we get a lot of trade accounts that keep coming back to us and this is what we will continue to target.
“Funeral Printing Direct has already had success as we have been contracted for recurring work with an undertaker and carried out two orders for them so far.”
Roberts founded Future Print after being made redundant from Leeds-based Barson Print in January 2016. He had worked for its founder, Robin Levitt, for 21 years in the sales department through Levitt’s time overseeing both Barson Print and its predecessor Barson Press (Leeds), which went into administration in 2009.
Levitt, who Roberts described as his “second father”, passed away in late 2015 and Barson Print fell into administration not long after Roberts’ departure. Roberts attempted to buy the company’s assets, but they were sold to another party, so he founded his own business.
At Future Print Leeds, Roberts employs five members of staff who are all “hands on” with the printing equipment on its 315sqm premises.
The firm’s printing portfolio comprises two Bizhub Pro 1052 mono production presses – with a third expected in the autumn – and a colour Bizhub Pro C1060L, all from Konica Minolta, alongside a gamut of finishing equipment.
Future Print Leeds turns over £500,000, with Roberts targeting £600,000 for the next financial year.
