TJ Books and Charlesworth Press are to merge, creating a new digital led print business.
Fortis Print Group, with directors and shareholders from both companies, was incorporated on 31 May as the new entity that according to a joint announcement, will be “a future focused, customer led print business”. TJ Books managing director Andy Watts and Charlesworth managing director Mark Gray will be joint managing directors of the new business.
Explaining the reason for forming the new business, Watts says: “We’re increasingly hearing that our customers want consistently high levels of service from a print partner who cares about their work. Fortis brings together the technical capabilities to innovate in the print market along with the ethos of customer service that always puts customer needs first.”
TJ Books operates from an extensive factory in Padstow with large format litho and continuous feed inkjet alongside cutsheet inkjet and formidable bindery capacity. It generated sales of £15.7 million in 2022 with 149 staff. Charlesworth operates from a factory in Wakefield where it has built expertise in personalised book production, including for leading publisher Wonderbly. It had 73 staff in 2023.
The Charlesworth digital production platform is based on HP Indigo printing feeding a Kolbus book of one binding line with Horizon binders. TJ Books also has extensive Kolbus binding capacity fed by Canon inkjet presses and large format litho.
Watts took control through a management buyout in 2018 and revamped TJ International as TJ Books in 2020 when several factories were combined under one roof together with a focus on being able to print colour books on digital presses.
The possibility of combining the businesses resulted from conversations between the leaders of the separate companies who “found alignment in our passion for personalised service and tailored print solutions”.
The new Fortis business will be able to call on the capabilities of both, giving both sets of customers a wider range of products, formats and book size with a better workflow and reduced turnaround times.
Gray comments: “We know the market is moving quickly towards flexible digital print solutions. We’re at the forefront of that movement, ensuring our customers get the creative approaches they want. Fortis supercharges digital print and creates a unique customer proposition for the sector.”
While the deal has been announced and the new company established, the details of how this will incorporate the hitherto independent companies still have to be worked out. This is expected to be in place by the end of the year.
