Precision Proco has split into a production focused business that will trade as Precision Proco and a tech focused business covering Where The Trade Buys and Custom Content Technologies. As consequence the ‘group’ identity has been dropped.
The ongoing Precision Proco operation, running production sites in Dagenham, Wembley, Sheffield and Sunderland, will be under the direction of Jon Bailey as CEO. Andy Skarpelis becomes COO and Gary Peeling its chairman. Bailey in turn becomes chairman of the now separate WTTB and Found businesses while Peeling will be CEO.
Work generated through WTTB and Found, the former HP start up that enables influencers to create printed products, will be printed by Precision Proco. Staff will continue to work from the locations they are used to, but for segregated companies.
Bailey says: “The move will allow the tech businesses to attract further investment for growth and development in WTTB and Found and will give both companies the opportunity to continue to thrive and fulfil their potential in a fast growing creative economy.
“Precision Proco will retain the manufacturing facilities and capabilities across all sites and will continue to service commercial and mass integrated business clients directly with a continued focus on automation, connectivity and productivity through enhanced API integration, product expansion and increased mass customisation capabilities.”
The divorce has taken more than six months to organise. The freedom will allow the WTTB and Found operations to attract new funding, and to expand outside the UK. There has already been interest in taking WTTB’s technology and print ordering platform into new markets. And Found has generated a 25-fold increase in revenue in the last year as what Peeling calls “the fast growing creative economy” enjoys the idea of physical products. “It will be easier to attract new investment into a tech business than it is into a manufacturing business,” he says. “Found and WTTB become customers for Precision Proco. It also continues to print for other ecommerce brands. This arrangement also makes it more straightforward to have sub contracted output arrangements in other countries.”
Before Precision Printing combined with Prime and Proco to create Precision Proco Group in 2020, it had sold its OneFlow single-copy workflow technology to HP Indigo.
