The deal was completed in July and TPPP is now trading as part of The Flow Group.

Two-staff TPPP was founded in 2019 by friends Paul Somerville and Andrew Robinson, with the sole mission to help make business print purchasing faster, simpler, and more personal.

The bespoke software, which was developed by Somerville himself, allows customers to order a variety of business print products, ranging from business cards and banners to uniforms or umbrellas, fully customised with their logo and designs.

The pair will remain an integral part of the business, both in development and in a sales capacity, and TPPP will now trade from The Flow Group’s head office in Brighouse, West Yorkshire. Their addition takes the group’s total headcount to 30.

Robinson told Printweek: “We’ve had a period where we’ve had to integrate the new business before we could launch it as a new brand within our group.

“The whole reason we did this is because back in March 2020 I merged my business, Mr Flyer, with Flow Solutions and it worked out so well that I said to my business partner [at TPPP] that we’re a start-up and if we want to grow and see this business thrive we need to get an investor or be acquired by a like-minded company.”

The enlarged Flow Group serves customers ranging from SMEs to blue-chip companies. Its turnover for 2021 is £2.6m while it is anticipating sales of around £3.6m in 2022, following the TPPP deal.

“The first three months were about fitting the systems into Flow’s systems, so that its CRM worked together with the platform of The Personal Print Portal and it was seamless,” said Robinson.

“We’ve also spent this time adding new features, including a subscription model, which is now in place.”

The subscription model provides discounts on many products, credit facilities, options for multiple users, and continual new features.

“We’ve had some success already. One of Flow’s huge clients has asked us to do all their merchandise printing while a Mr Flyer client has asked us to do printing for launching their new store,” said Robinson.

“There are big orders coming in thanks to being part of a bigger group, the whole point is so that we can cross-sell to customers.”

The Flow Group managing director Richard Standing commented: “Adding TPPP to our offering really is the missing piece of the puzzle. Having the ability to offer our clients a simple solution to their printing needs not only saves them time, but it speeds up the whole print ordering process and is far more cost effective.

“Existing clients have previously had to order their print material separately, however, now the process can be fully streamlined thanks to TPPP.”

The Flow Group is also launching two new services – hybrid mail and pick and pack – before Christmas.