Leicester won its final home game against Everton 3-1 last Saturday (7 May). However, it had already been crowned coveted Premier League champions on 2 May, after Tottenham failed to beat London rivals Chelsea and the points gap between Leicester and second-place Spurs became too wide.
The Leicester City programme has a normal print run of 8,000, but for this game printer Buxton Press, a three-time PrintWeek Award-winner, produced 19,000 copies.
Buxton head of marketing Lindsay Frost said: “We didn’t know until the Tuesday morning what we were going to be printing, the quantity, or the size. It was quite a big ask but we relished the challenge and were delighted to come up with the goods.”
She added: “They sold like hot cakes.”
The content of the team’s programme is produced by Leicester-based creative marketing agency Soar Media. Creative director Gary Webster said: “Because of the the nature of it, being football, and lots changing in the week leading up to the game, we only found out on the Monday night. We had planned beforehand but there was only so much content we could get done before the game.”
Leicester's standard programme is A5, 84pp and perfect bound, with a matt-laminated cover that includes 'City' printed in Pantone gold. It costs £3.50 and is sold polywrapped with a folded poster. Webster said it usually sells out. However, for the commerative edition the format was increased to A4 and pagination bumped to 108pp; the price remained the same.
The initial 19,000 run sold out before the game had started and the club has re-ordered 10,000 for delivery on Monday 16 May. Webster said there are further plans for special print editions this summer and Soar Media will be sitting down next week with club officials to draw up plans.
Derbyshire-based Buxton Press prints magazines and periodicals. It prints over 630 titles comprising 54 million magazines each year.
Last November, it bought a second Stahlfolder KH 82, featuring multiple folders, continuing a multimillion-pound equipment investment. It also runs four Heidelberg XL 106 B1 long-perfectors each with CutStar, in eight- and 10-colour formats, three stitching lines and 10 B1 folders.
Webster said he was delighted with Leicester’s surprise league victory. He said: “I’ve been a supporter since I was a child so there was some personal interest. To be honest, the football has been surreal, I still don’t know when it will sink in.”
