Founded in 1924 by John Lindley, the print and design business began life as a printer and bookbinder, shifting to digital print in 2004 with the sale of the business from Lindley’s grandson, John Charles Lindley, to current managing directors David Hanson and Anthony Wood.
“We’re so proud to take the business through this milestone,” Hanson said.
“We’re trying to stay doing what we’re doing – serving our customers well.”
He told Printweek that he had seen – and with Wood, been responsible for – significant changes in the company, as new technology came on board with digital printing taking over from NCR as a major source of business in the early 2000s.
“There was a lot more NCR, as was the nature of things back then,” he said.
“But we put digital in fairly quickly, within the first few months, with a Xerox Phaser 7750. It was the same print engine as a [DocuColor] 3535. It was what we could afford at the time, and it printed full colour.
“Back then, it was quite all-consuming – we were young men, 26 years old. We were fairly young to be running a print firm, particularly one so well-established with such a long history.”
And despite a few minor hiccups – like the 2009 recession and Covid – the business has done well as it has done for many years as a jobbing printer by sticking true to its principles of good service, he added.
Still running Xerox kit, with a Versant 4100 and V280, the company now also prints wide-format for banners and posters with a Mimaki CJV300-160, and runs mono work off an SRA3 RMGT litho press.
“We’re pretty well recovered from Covid now, so we’ll be looking at putting another wide-format machine and some finishing equipment in,” Hanson added.
Part of the company’s post-Covid growth has been in its online print sister business, Hippoprint.co.uk, which it developed in league with a web developer before buying the other company out, which he said was “picking back up”.
Across both businesses, he said: “We’re just about back up there, so I’m hoping for forward momentum.”
Lindleys employs six staff, turning over around £200,000.
