It’s now been 25 years since the introduction of digital printing, pioneered by Indigo (now HP). Now, to put that into perspective, this revolution in printing has been around for longer than Citiprint’s owner but it comes a mere 554 years after the origins of mass print production.
Now, if you’ve been paying attention, whilst print advertising has declined over the past decade, the print and sign industry has boomed – now worth nearly $1 trillion Worldwide. That means there’s a hell of a lot of print and sign companies out there, with the UK alone responsible for keeping 150,000 people in employment in the industry each year. So, that means we’ve got a lot of history to cover and a lot of stats, but we’ll keep it short and sweet.
Where did we come from?
In late 2015, consumer demand was transformed by the boom of apps such as JustEat, Uber and TaskRabbit. This meant getting what we want, when we want it became as simple as a few taps on a screen. Taking that ease and simplicity and the increasing demand for last minute printing, we built M25Print.com – servicing all businesses and customers within the M25 for Same Day Printing of Business Cards, Flyers and Roller Banners. Quickly realising there was a huge market for other products and services – wide format, graphics, digital printed vinyl etc led us to start Citiprint and well… it’s grown more than we’d ever imagine.
Do we print or outsource?
The UK print market is flooded beyond belief with outsourcers. Sure, it’s simple – you buy a cheap laptop, find a few online trade printers and run your ‘print’ business from home. BUT… how many times do we get calls and enquiries from clients who have been let down by these so called print partners. There’s no doubt the outsourcing and marketplace business model can work; take Amazon for example, over half their products are in other people’s warehouses around the world and they still continue to grow year on year with amazing customer retention. That’s all well and good for retail but Print and Signs require knowledge and your online outsourced print supplier simply won’t have that. We’ve built up a wealth of knowledge from working closely with manufacturers, suppliers and experience to deliver a first rate solution to every client requirement.
Less than 6 months into our journey, we realised it was time to invest in our own equipment and go fully in house for production. Taking on premises and purchasing two existing print companies gave us the overnight ability to produce high quality digital print in house. We have continued to reinvest and now operate three Epson SureColour solvent printers, the workhouse of our business and the heroes behind every job we print. At the end of the day, we’re a bricks and mortar business – you can visit us, see your job being printed and ask for advice and see how that advice results in the end product. Your outsourced partner can’t come close to offering that.
Are we growing?
In short, every day we’re growing faster than expected. We’re responsible for turning around bespoke projects, signage and solutions for some of the World’s biggest brands (you can read more about our clients here). We work so closely with our clients to deliver the right print or sign solution, even if it’s a simple batch of business cards or a few graphics because we know when our customers grow, we grow and the circle then never stops.
Our new 1500sqft unit in London will help us continue to grow – we’ve got even more capacity now for vehicle graphics, van signs, exhibition stands and so much more.
The moral of the story?
Use a printing company who prints. Work with a team who understand print and have extensive knowledge. Go with a company that works closely with suppliers and attends every possible course and open day possible to enhance their skills. We print in house, we deliver nationwide. We are the leaders in 24/7 Print and Signs.
