Integrity Print has its origins in the Standard Check Book Company, founded in 1916 by Frederick Millard and Walter Merrrick.
The ‘check’ books of the day were a special type of ruled journal used by accountants.
The modern-day Integrity Print was formed in 2008 when managing director Mark Cornford led a management buy-out of the Bath Business Forms and Economailer operations from Communisis. It expanded its security print and export offering with the 2012 acqusition of Birmingham-based A1 Trade Print, subsequently renamed A1 Security Print.
The Midsomer Norton headquartered group now has turnover of £54m and employs around 400 staff.
Integrity Print is planning to mark the centenary in a number of ways, including giving employees an extra day’s holiday at the end of the year.
“When I think about the people who have given their working lives to this business, I feel very loyal to them and to the company, and I’m focused on building something with a long-term future,” Cornford said.
“I’m incredibly proud of my business, it’s been going for 100 years and I want to make sure it can go on for the next 100.”
The group has made a number of strategic investments to take the business forward, as it expands and diversifies its operations.
It has added a Xerox Nuvera 144 and Xerox Versant 2100 to its Clarity Mail hybrid mail operation, and confirmed an order for a new Pitney Bowes enclosing line at Drupa.
The firm also boosted its growing labels and packaging offering with the acquisition of the assets of C&P Packaging earlier this year. This takes the group into short-run food packaging and it has upgraded its BRC accreditation from Level 2 to Level 1 as a result
Integrity also believes it has become the UK’s largest producer of integrated label stationery products, an area that has seen growing demand due to the rise in online retailing. It installed a new Tamarack line at the end of last year, taking its total to eight production lines comprising a mixture of Tamarack and Hunkeler equipment.
Sales and marketing director Andrew Law said the group was “the biggest printer you’ve never heard of”, and Integrity planned to increase its profile by ramping up internal and external communications.
The firm is also working with the local industrial museum at Radstock. “There was a strong printing industry in the area and sadly some of those big names are no more, but we’re still here,” Law added.
