The Birmingham-based commercial printer bought BCR for £10,500 in May and can now offer customised corporate clothing in addition to its existing digital and lithographic print services.

“A customer of ours asked us if we’d be interested in buying the workwear company that she owned because she was focusing on another company she also owned, which was getting bigger," said director Ian Breakwell.

“We did our homework, and realised it could be a good opportunity to run alongside our existing service.”

Russell Printers bought BCR's order book as part of the acquisition and has retained around 90% of its customer base.

“We’ve not been going out and trying to get new customers yet; we’ve just been introducing ourselves as the new owners to existing BCR customers,” said Breakwell.

“Once we’re satisfied that they're all happy, we’ll go out to start to try and get new customers too.”

In the two months since the acquisition, the firm has already seen cross-promotion opportunities between the businesses.

“People that have come in to buy leaflets have requested some clothing too and vice versa. We’ve already got some schools on board that are were buying clothing and are now buying print from us too,” said Breakwell.

“We’ve found that it’s easier to talk people into buying workwear than print so I can see it growing to make up a large proportion of our business over time.”

Russell Printers has three staff and a turnover of £300,000. It produces items including business cards, stationery, leaflets and brochures for customers from a range of industries. Its corporate clients include Dunlop Aircraft Tyres, Elastoplast, Aston Martin and RBS.

In the future, the firm hopes to move into large-format printing. “We get a lot of requests for posters and banners, which we currently have to outsource,” said Breakwell.