During his career he has been involved in a number of pioneering technology moves.

He started off as the customer of a printer when he worked in brand management, computer sales and systems analysis.

“I wasn’t that interested in print but I had to get it done!” he recalled.

Jacobs became involved with the nascent instant printing market in 1973 when he joined a litho printer as marketing manager. The printer had spotted a gap in the market and set up Kwik Kopy, which became a franchise.

Subsequently, Jacobs became the UK managing director for US franchise PIP and opened 40 stores.

In the mid-1980s he saw an opportunity to offer trade overnight typesetting, and then introduced the concept of automatically ganging up different jobs in order to rapidly supply multiple orders.

“That was a big turning point in terms of technology. We bought two Scangraphic Scantext machines which were £250,000 each at the time,” Jacobs recalled.

“Because of that we got into SGML – Standard Graphic Markup Language. We found out that we could actually bring the codes into the Scantext machine. Someone with a computer could do the codes so that we didn’t have to re-set it.”

In 1993 he started Print Zone in Camden, which laid claim to being the UK’s first all-digital printer.

The business was sold to UDO, which became Service Point. Jacobs was responsible for the installation of what was the third Indigo digital press in the country.

In 1997 he set up the eponymous Ivor Solution to develop ‘internet to print’ software, which became web-to-print.

Printing was outsourced until 2005 when the firm added its own manufacturing facilities.

The firm’s hybrid offering was branded as Cognitu and was adopted as a white label solution by a number of print management specialists, with Ivor Solution handling more than 1,000 orders a day, while retaining an outsourcing option for certain types of work.

Spencer Slee, who had been one of the firm’s corporate customers, bought into the business in 2013 and became managing director.

Ivor Solution became Print Evolved in 2016.

Jacobs quipped that he did not predict that it would be a further decade until he would retire, aged 78.

“Spencer has been really fantastic. He’s kept everything under control and really looked after everything, especially with Covid,” Jacobs added.

“I’ve still got some shares and am still on the board, and I will be doing some work with major customers – you get to know them so well and how they need to integrate with their own customers.”

Acquisitions, including VR Print last year, along with growing online sales have seen the group expand to £10m-plus sales overall, and it remains on the lookout for further buys.

Jacobs said he would have more time to enjoy his love of music in retirement, and also plays guitar in a group.

He is also writing a book about his industry experiences that is “almost finished”.