Solways owner Tim Solway said he was the last printer to be operating a platen within the London congestion zone, until he moved his SRA3 Heidelberg GTP press, used for foil blocking, letterpress print, embossing, die-cutting and scoring, to Solway Print's premises on the west coast of Scotland last month.
He sold his other presses – a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52 and two Heidelberg GTO 52s, one single-colour, the other two-colour – as Solway Print already had the same machines.
Commercial printer Solway Print will complete the company's print production from now on. Tim Solway will keep his non-manufacturing operation in the same location in Borough, London, running for the time being, while planning to downsize buildings in the future.
The company employed three printing staff: one left of his own accord and two were made redundant. Of these one was near retirement and the second in is talks with Solway Print about a possible move to Scotland. A part-timer and four full-time staff remain.
The new partnership is a business arrangement but not a merger.
“It’s gone really well, considering. It’s a huge sea change,” Solway said.
“As far as my customers are concerned nothing has changed, although I really miss being able to go down to the shop floor and see how a job is done. Very few customers are interested though, they only care about the quality of the product and the delivery."
He added: “The new relationship is quite exciting, I don’t regret anything.”
He said there were at least 10 reasons that prompted the move, primarily the high cost of running manufacturing in London and an increasingly competitive print market. Support engineers not wanting to incur the cost of going into the congestion zone was another factor.
There had been no prior connection between the two companies.
Solways was established 48 years ago by Tim Solway’s father, whose family had no connection with The Solway Firth, a 200-mile stretch of coastline which runs along the coast of Dumfries & Galloway and Cumbria.
Solway said his father’s firm became the largest printworks in SE1 with 700 staff and 10 machines in a line, running the “brilliant” British Rotaprint presses in the post-war period before moving on to Heidelberg kit.
Since 1967 the company has shrunk but found a successful niche catering to a design-led market with Tim Solway taking over as managing director in 1982.
He said the company had constantly evolved and adapted.
Managing director of Solway Print Matthew Ronnie said: “Our customers have always come first and this innovative alliance will allow us to offer a more extensive range of print processes, with streamlined and automated production techniques and having access to the design-hungry London market producing high-end crafted bespoke print products.
"The Solway association is a unique and extremely effective business solution to allow everyone to evolve."
