Streamline Press and sister firm Baxters jointly bought local business Spectrum Printing Services in February. The combined group has reshaped its operations since the deal was completed to ensure long-term financial stability and enable it to continue to support its customers, despite the challenges presented by the coronavirus pandemic.

Group managing director Mark Lockley said: “Bringing together three trusted specialists under one unified company means SBS Print Group can confidently support businesses with every aspect of their print needs, from state-of-the-art technology to innovative solutions that fit even the most challenging timescales and budgets.

“The current climate means businesses need to be confident placing their print with a reliable partner who can be trusted to deliver and we believe our new, unified approach places us in the best possible position to deliver this and continue to grow our business.

“We’ve created a team of print experts with a wealth of knowledge and experience, combined with the latest print technology, to boost our capabilities and deliver a high quality job, every time.”

Group sales director Richard Smith told Printweek each business will retain its own identity while being unified under the new group, which has a new logo that will appear on all of its business stationery and customer communications, as well as on external signage at the group's three sites, all of which are also all being retained.

Across the three businesses, SBS Print Group currently employs 79 people, including 11 recruits from fellow Leicester printer Taylor Bloxham, who joined earlier in the year after that business fell into administration in February.

Smith said that while there had been “minimal restructuring”, the group had managed to keep the majority of its people on and that it had operated at 50-60% of where it would usually be throughout the pandemic.

He hopes the group will be turning over around £13m once the worst effects of the pandemic have passed and said the group continues to invest, particularly on its digital side where it installed a Heidelberg Versafire digital press in August to operate alongside Heidelberg litho presses that run across all three businesses.

“Our plan is certainly to grow and then widen our offering a little bit,” he added.