The independent, family-run print firm, which has provided local businesses with signage and vehicle graphics since 2016, has steadily expanded into new verticals including engraving and branded workwear.
With the installation of the Xerox Versant 280 from First Copy in early April, it has now directly entered the small-format print market, having previously shopped it out to local firm Blackwell Print, with which it enjoyed a close relationship.
Following Blackwell’s closure in late February, however, Effective was left without a small-format printer – so reached out to former Blackwell director Aaron Watson and digital press operator Wayne Daniel. Joining the firm as production manager and press operative respectively, the pair have helped launch Effective into action immediately on the new press, according to director Sara Docwra.
She told Printweek: “It’s lovely for them, and lovely for us, because they’ve come with a wealth of experience. It seems natural for us to dip our toes into small-format printing.
“It’s enabled us to have a much greater control over what we’re doing – that’s why we offer so many services, because we like to have that control for our customers. And in the current economic climate, they also like to make sure they’re coming direct [to the printer] and not using a middle man.”
Docwra added that in the two weeks since installation the team had already seen some “nice jobs” go through the machine, with several Blackwell customers coming across to Effective with Watson and Daniel.
“We were able to offer continuity of service, and [in Watson] they had a contact they knew and trusted. We’re a family-run business, and we’re able to offer that high level of service, too,” Docwra said.
She joined Effective in 2019, following her husband Jonathan Ling into the business after he founded it in 2016.
Now employing a team of 11, the firm provides signage, vehicle graphics, banners, and a host of merchandising print including workwear, printed on its stable of two HP Latex 335s, and a Mimaki UJF6042 UV flatbed at its 930 sqm facility.
Turning over about £1m, the firm is looking to grow following the investment in its new small-format capabilities.
“With the small-format, it should bring in a host of new customers, who will also then be interested in all the other services we offer,” Docwra said.
“People really enjoy having one communication point to get everything they need, rather than going to separate places for their print, clothing, and merchandise.
“I’m an advocate of online shopping, it has benefits, but for me that personal approach to a customer, having a human being on the end of the phone [is crucial] – we know what we’re talking about, because they’re our products, and I think that makes an awful lot of difference in the economic climate we’re in.”
