The print, branding, and design specialist opened the leased 29sm shop in the Oxfordshire town on 10 May.

Print Ready managing director Rich Wickson said the move would enable it to trade directly with a wider clientele from a prominent location.

The shop will complement the company’s existing leased 111sqm premises at the town’s Windrush Industrial Park, where it has built up a wide range of clients since the business was founded in May 2018.

Wickson said the company was looking for more visibility and a little extra space when he came across the high street unit. The process went “very smoothly”, with the business picking up the keys to the unit two months later.

He told Printweek: “We’re trying to get away from being that traditional printing business based in a factory and going out and selling to clients, and trying to be more of a high street brand where lots of clients hopefully walk through the door and come and see us.

“It’s given us a lot more visibility compared to the factory and we’ve picked up lots of new clients, big and small, because of it. It’s acting as a billboard for the business as well as a shop.”

Print Ready offers a wide range of services from brochures and banners, to shop signage, vehicle graphics, and printed t-shirts and jackets.

The business employs six-staff, a mix of full-time and part-time, and Wickson said either two or three would be working at the new shop at any one time, where it runs small digital kit from Xerox and some finishing equipment.

At the larger industrial unit, it operates a Xerox Versant digital printer, HP Latex wide-format kit, and an Epson SureColor SC-F2100 direct-to-garment (DTG) printer, along with associated machinery for pre- and post-treatment.

Print Ready serves clients including start-up companies and brands, private schools, the local council, and hospitality businesses including coffee shops and restaurants.

“We are seeing customers coming back but we did grow about 5% last year despite Covid. Even with what was going on we managed to grow and invest in new kit, and put a mezzanine in the factory as well,” said Wickson.

“We had a lot of start-up business coming through, including brands for clothing as people obviously had time on their hands to do that, and we pivoted a bit into doing Covid floor stickers and screens as well.”

The company has a current turnover of £300,000 and is hoping to push that up to around £400,000 to £500,000 over the next year.

The deal on Print Ready’s new shop was arranged by commercial property agents VSL & Partners, acting for a private landlord.