The team cycled 296 miles in under 12 hours last Thursday (18 December). Optimus is the first of 10 companies to complete its fundraising challenge as part of the 10-month-long fundraising initiative PassIT!

In partnership with the Duplo London Calling partners, each of the 10 participating companies will take a month each to raise money for PrintIT!, the UK’s largest school into industry programme for the printing, paper and packaging industries.

The other partnering companies involved in the initiative are Antalis, Balreed, Taopix, Vpress, LumeJet, Renz, Neopost, Vivid and Duplo.

Optimus sales director Steve Richardson said: “We had a lot of fun doing this event and all the participants really enjoyed it.

“We want the whole industry to get behind this initiative and think long term about getting young people into print. We were very pleased to be first off the blocks and can’t wait to see what the partners do over the coming months.”

The funds raised will go directly back into the programme and will help to aid the development of new student workbooks, pay for school visits to the printing industry and fund new career development materials for both the students and teachers.

Amy Moran, group marketing manager of charity Proskills, which runs the PrintIT! initiative, said: “All of us here at Proskills are in awe of this incredible feat performed by Optimus. We cannot thank them enough for their tremendous efforts.

“We saw a flood of support on social media with the first of the donations coming in for PrintIT! We couldn’t have asked for a better start to the PassIT! fundraising campaign and are very excited to see the upcoming activities from the remaining partners.”

With a focus on designing a print product for Fairtrade, schools participating in the PrintIT! initiative are provided with free lesson plans, resources, and workbooks. Over 140,000 students from around 2,000 schools have taken part in the programme to date.

To donate to PrintIT!, visit www.givey.com/printit2014 or contact 01235 833844.