The family-owned business, which has 10 staff and a turnover of around £850,000, serves customers including design agencies, advertising agencies, print management companies and trade printers.
It was established in 1995 after the firm’s founder Bob Whitaker, who passed away last year, purchased and installed two Indigo presses. His son, Hywel Whitaker, is the current managing director.
Creative director Dominic Lee, who has worked for the business since its inception, said: “It took us two to three years to find our feet but we managed to convince our customers that digital was the future of print and we were soon working with like-minded businesses such as Shell, BP, Warner Bros, Revlon, Sony, Rolls Royce and Royal Mail, many of which we are still working with 20 years later.”
In 2001 the business introduced a specialist fine art printing service. It is one of only a few digital print companies recognised by the Fine Art Guild.
Gemini is a former winner of PrintWeek's Digital Printer of the Year award and was a finalist on three other occasions. It has also won several Business Innovation awards from the Welsh Arts Council and in 2014 it won HP Indigo’s Outstanding Contribution to Digital Print award.
The business currently operates an HP Indigo 3050 and an HP Indigo 5500 on its digital side and two Epson 9900s and an Epson 10600 for fine art and large-format work.
It also has in-house stitching, cutting, wire binding and laminating facilities and it outsources die-cutting and perfect binding. The firm is planning to install an HP Indigo 7800 next year.
The company has recently increased the range and variety of substrates it is able to print on after introducing white ink printing.
“We upgraded our HP Indigo 5500 with a fifth ink unit. We had a spot colour unit on there before but it was quite specific and didn’t really work for us,” said Lee.
“The white ink has been brilliant; we’ve done several projects and the response has been really good, primarily because of the different types of stock that people can print on with it. It has won us some new work and we’re quoting on a few jobs now.”
The firm is also planning to expand its range of large-format services to include backlit films for advertising and promotions, removable wallpapers for wall decals and graphics and foam board mounting.
The business has celebrated its 20th birthday in a range of different ways including a visit from the BPIF, a staff night out and a party for guests and customers. It has also held various promotions to commemorate the occasion and plans to continue its celebrations throughout the year.
Lee dedicated Gemini’s anniversary to the firm’s late founder. “Bob Whitaker was a great man with a great vision whose passion was print. He is sorely missed by everyone at Gemini Digital Colour and indeed by those who knew him. Without his guidance Gemini would not be here today.
“We would like to dedicate our 20th birthday to Bob, and in his memory we look forward to the next chapter in our history.”
