We’re excited to announce that Precision Printing has been in business for over 50 years! That’s right, we’ve been proudly serving the print industry since 1966! Precision Printing is a family business founded by Clive Cooper.
Precision Printing first planted its roots in Central Street, London. At the young age of 20, Clive dreamed of starting a print shop and, in 1966 when he had an opportunity to acquire and re-brand an existing printers, he did just that! Precision Printing was born and thus our legacy began.
Clive’s stepson, CEO Gary Peeling has been the heart of the company’s success. His willingness to evolve and adapt to every technological change and demand that has come along has led the company on a pathway that has always been up-to-date. The other reason for our ongoing success is that we put the customer and their best interests first, so their problems become our opportunities.
How times have changed
(1980 – Stitched book)
Technologies develop and evolve rapidly meaning trends can quickly come and go over the years. 1966 was the era of the letterpress, letters and short runs. The 70s and 80s were for producing general business stationery, stitched books, long runs and GTOs, rather than the more elaborate products of today like lay-flat books. Stationery was produced in mass and often stored in stock.
(2017 – Lay flat)
Gary Peeling explains:
“Now the printing business is digitally-driven and, when once we had a typesetter or compositor, we now have a software development department and the business is entirely run from a digital front-end, so it’s been a huge transition.
“When we first started, you’d be lucky to have an estimate in three days. We now print and ship same-day up to 50,000 orders a day in the on-demand space, so there’s been a huge transformation.”
(1966 – Letterpress)
As the technology has evolved, today we no longer require long runs because short-run digital press is readily available. This means print on demand is more economical all-round. Business cards were generally artworked, proofed, proofed again and finally sent to print with a window of normally two weeks to turn around. Today these are turned around same day with the customer more often than not placing their own order online, so no artworker at all is involved.
What the future looks like
Any successful company is constantly evolving with the times and moving forward. Just like any other company, Precision can’t afford to stand still in a highly competitive environment like the print industry – so it’s not going to.
We are always looking for new ways to strive forward and be diverse hence Precision’s drive with Where the Trade Buys, our online print solution for trade printers. Where the Trade Buys is our fastest-growing revenue stream, growing by 80% in 2016.
We’re moving to a new location this year to from our original East London Barking site to a larger site. This will make room for a new packing and mailing service and a whole new level of technology.
But despite new changes, and challenges we might face in the ever-changing market, we will never forget our roots nor overlook what has been the key to our continued success – our staff, customers and continued commitment to delivering exceptional customer service and quality products. Our customers and our highest standards of quality and aftercare remain our number one priority. We remain passionate about providing print solutions that work for our customers.
