There is an old photo in Blackmore’s reception area. A group of men outside Gillingham watermill in Dorset stare at the camera. Three are wearing long protective aprons and two stand on the waterwheel itself, two are suited and are identified as Thomas Herbert Brickell the company’s founder with his son. It was taken in 1912.
This is perhaps the first workforce for the company, the foundation on which a modern 21st century print business has been built.
Nobody is exactly sure when Blackmore was founded, sometime around the end of the nineteenth century is the consensus, but it is certainly older than most printers and has survived several transitions in its time: arrival of electrical power, the world wars, depression, the move from letterpress to offset, to digital prepress and digital printing.
There will be other challenges and Blackmore is prepared. “We have done our homework on inkjet,” says managing director Andrew Robbins. He is one of the triumvirate that both owns and runs the business along with Nigel Hunt as operations director and Simon West, commercial director. The three have spent their careers in print at the business, culminating in taking over the company in a management buyout that was completed in March 2020.
“We always worked closely with the previous owners,” says Robbins. “So when the opportunity came to take the business to the next level, the owners wanted to give us the best possible chance of success.”
It was a carefully planned process, meaning there was time to consider the structures, the teams and to organise what was a smooth transition that few outside the business even noticed. That is the way Blackmore would want it.
The process gave Robbins and West the time to talk to customers and suppliers over an extended period, providing the reassurance that there would be no abrupt change. “The old owners did not want to jeopardise the financial success of the business,” Robbins adds. Circumstances, however, had other ideas.
The process closed on 10 March just two weeks before the economy itself closed down, creating massive uncertainty all round.
Blackmore was not hit as badly as some printers. It had a diversified customer base with a spread of customers in different sectors, some of which suffered during lockdown, some of which benefited. After the initial shock Blackmore was able to produce social distancing stickers and signage, while using the period to redesign its website.
Its pharmaceutical customers generated new orders and likewise orders from a charity for testing kits provided an unexpected boost to both print and the company’s fulfilment operations. It prints thousands of puzzle books which proved popular as a way of passing the time during lockdowns.
Even before the pandemic Blackmore was starting to shift into carton work as commercial print came under pressure from digital marketing. The demand for cartons was rising too as businesses looked for a packaging material that could be recycled more easily.
“People are asking us about our sustainability and what we can do to help them improve,” says Robbins. “For example they want to move their packaging away from the use of plastics. At the same time customers want something that stands out on the shelf. We can work with their designers or we can create designs in house. This consultative approach is very much appreciated.”
The timing was good as, during lockdown, the need to shop from home created demand for suitable packaging from customers that are too small to interest the large packaging groups and for new customers that used lockdown to start artisan businesses that need packaging. “Our sweet spot is between the long runs for big brands that suit the large packaging groups and the ultra short runs, say 7,000-8,000 sheets. There’s a good market for that in this part of the country,” says Robbins.
Blackmore had trained people in its studio staff on carton designs and had installed a Vivid Veloblade cutting table to cut out the samples for customers not used to specifying packaging.
The company had been shown the Nexus cutting table and commented that a B1 format would be perfect. This was not available at that time, but two weeks later it was. Blackmore became the first customer.
If lockdown was not enough of a baptism by fire, the following April one of its litho presses was put out of action by a small blaze. It was contained, nobody was hurt, and insurance paid out promptly. The company even received a letter of praise from the local fire service, not that that restored the lost capacity. Blackmore was able to use nearby printers when required so that customers did not suffer, or indeed notice any difference. In short the consequences might have been far worse and Blackmore has forged some strong relationships in the industry that play to a strategy of collaboration among independent businesses. Even so a fire was not what the new owners wished for.
Blackmore was able to use the situation to its advantage. The ground floor offices were moved upstairs to create an area that is set aside for digital print expansion while the main print hall was reconfigured with a partition wall coming down making it much easier to move pallets of paper and work between machinery.
That damaged Komori was quickly replaced by a machine from Komori’s Utrecht showroom, a Lithrone 540 hybrid press able to run conventional or UV inks and with an inline UV coater. “There were a number of considerations: We had to get something quickly, we were looking for versatility and flexibility to fit our strategy. We have always had a good relationship with Komori and our previous experience meant we knew the cost of ownership was low. We needed to make sure we were getting something that was capable of producing packaging. This press had inline UV varnishing which meant we could offer this in-house now and we could print an opaque white, cured with interdecks and then print in four-colour on Colourplan type materials.”
In short the configuration suited a corporate ethos that is about versatility and flexibility over the highest possible OEE. “We are not in the age of chasing turnover or commodity work. We want products that need to stand out – and there is less competition in packaging,” he says.
The market is also moving in this direction he explains. Jobs that would have been printed once a year are now on press three or four times a year with much shorter print runs which can change as the customer adjusts his prices. “We have also won new business from people that had been printing hundreds of thousands which needed a web press. Now we can print 20,0000 copies for them four times a year. And as they are printing smaller volumes, they can spend a little more on what they are printing and can use traditional finishing like foiling, spot varnish to create something that stands out.
“I think that people are seeing the real value of print and that it should be part of their mix. Putting all their budget into digital can be dangerous as people are getting fed up with cookies. People still appreciate something that they can feel, that is well designed and on interesting materials.”
This is one of the reasons Blackmore is not running an open web to print portal where the emphasis is all about cost for commodity items. It has a number of closed web ordering systems with customers and has been considering whether and what to launch on the packaging side. This might have standard carton types for non regular customers to order online, but nothing has as yet been settled.
Last year that first hybrid litho press was joined by a second press, like the first a Lithrone G540 Advance with coater.
This is configured to be able to run UV inks and thus to produce ever increasing volumes of packaging, while the first tends to be dedicated to commercial work as well as to the high quality work required by London galleries and auction houses.
The second press is fitted with Komori’s PQA quality scanning system which can pick up the tiniest flaws in pharmaceutical work, but which can be too sensitive for more run of the mill work. It will also manage colour to remove any uncertainty when printing repeat artwork as happens with greetings cards and carton work.
The main press hall has been opened up to arrange the two presses end to end with finishing and work in progress positioned in the rest of the area. It has Muller Martini stitching and two MBO folders having previously had a Stahl and MBO.
In the next part of the factory is something rather unusual these days: a coldset web set up with two Solna Distributors able to print newspapers, puzzle books and local publications, including the Blackmore Vale, one of those publications that has a fiercely loyal readership.
The Solnas are simple machines, certainly in comparison to the Komoris, and the lack of a Swedish manufacturer to provide parts and support is not missed. The drawings and rights to build the machines are now in the hands of a Chinese company, though rather than wait for parts to wing their way across the world, Blackmore knows local engineering businesses that can fashion whatever part is needed.
The demand is there. Unusually for a coldset press, Blackmore’s has a 630mm cut off making it highly suitable for A4 and A5 publications. The Blackmore Vale and its three siblings, shortly to be joined by a fifth title for that part of the south west, fall into this category. It is also printing the Byline Times, a monthly newspaper magazine that has been boosted by a distribution deal with WH Smith, and is now available nationwide. It also prints newspapers that nationwide charities send to their supporters and which like the idea of low impact recyclable products.
“Some of the work we had pre Covid is coming back, if not in the same way. Before it was sold to Reach, Blackmore Vale could have 280pp and run to 60,000 copies. Reach closed it down, but it was saved by a local businessman. Now the pagination is 96pp and print run is half of what it was. It still has a place in the community, particularly for older readers. We think that newspapers like this might last another ten years,” he says.
The printer has produced its own tabloid style promotion (albeit not on the coldset press): Blackmore Times, talking about the business and which it sent to customers. The widespread feedback including requests to produce a similar product for their business. They liked the concept and will be designing their own versions.
The company is now looking for further diversification. It acquired its first digital press in 2018 and now has a Ricoh Pro C7200. Until then any digital work was farmed out locally. With the post buyout reorganisation, office staff moved upstairs to provide space for the digital department to expand. It is necessary. Demand for digital print services has reached the point where Blackmore needs to increase capacity, either through an additional press or through an extra shift.
Investment in large format inkjet is also on the cards as a straightforward diversification. That might also come via acquisition says Robbins. It has put the word out that Blackmore would like to acquire. Robbins has said: “During the pandemic, we looked for new opportunities by collaborating with other UK printers and suppliers to provide additional print services, mitigating other areas of the business that were temporarily affected by the situation. This worked really well for us and our suppliers, and we are looking to continue and expand on our collaborations. Not only are we looking to work with other suppliers, we are also happy to offer our services to other businesses, too.
“We are looking to collaborate with other print providers, whether they are interested in joint ventures, consolidation, looking to sell, change or expand.
“The business is financially stable. We have space and room to expand. We do not want to gamble what we have so will proceed with caution.”
The biggest diversification so far though is into carton printing. Carton work has continued to grow and now accounts for more than 20% of turnover. It sits well alongside commercial print. In the normal flow of business, commercial print is busier towards the end of each month for delivery (and invoicing) that month. Carton work tends to print at the start of the month, again for month end shipment, but taking longer because the finishing required is more complex.
The expansion of carton printing has also disrupted the traditional seasonal flow of work. Where Blackmore’s peak used to be from October to November, packaging work has brought this forward into the late summer so that brands and retailers can load product to their shelves in time for the Christmas period.
It is a change that Blackmore has taken in its stride.
The customers for packaging appreciate that Blackmore has a strong environmental ethos. This suits the customer base very well. The factory roof is adorned with £200,000 of solar panels that can deliver around 283,500kWh of electricity, one-third of the power that the business needs. The remainder comes from a contract based on electricity from 100% renewable sources.
The sourcing of power is matched by smarter thinking to reduce the need for as much energy per sheet produced. The presses are themselves more efficient that the machines they replaced. Blackmore reckons that there has been a 60% reduction in power used on the new presses, handy given the steep rise in the cost of energy. Energy use has also been cut by switching to a central compressor for the business rather than separate devices.
A new IR/hot air curtain drying design from Komori (Blackmore is the first user in the world) is rated as 40% more efficient than the previous hot air/IR systems. And it is not the only development to save energy.
Knowing Blackmore’s interest in sustainability, Komori approached the company with the proposition of becoming an early adopter of SmartInk, a new inking system that has fewer but larger inkers. Production director Nigel Hunt has been impressed. “We were wary to start with – would it deliver the rolling power and so on. But have been delighted. It gives a faster response and there is less waste and a reduction in the amount of power needed. We have put this on the second press as well,” he says.
Komori is not yet singing about the technology, though it will surely be discussed at Drupa.
The company is already using Kodak Sonora process-free plates on both sheetfed and coldset presses. It also uses Kodak workflows and its Colorflow software to manage colour across litho and digital presses to ensure consistency. The switch to process-free plates earned Blackmore Kodak’s Green Leaf award and has saved 360,000 litres of water a year by eliminating processing. Recycling and zero to landfill (since 2012) are simply part of the culture.
This year Blackmore has become one of the few fully carbon balanced printers in the UK. It also won the environmental impact award in the Dorset Business Awards last year. The judges recognised the impact that the business was already having in terms of reducing its footprint while other submissions focused on their plans. Its first EcoVadis audit rated the company as silver. All are confident that this is just the start as is reaching the goal of being net zero by the end of the decade.
The Dorset environmental prize was not the only accolade earned last year, as Mateusz Sapko became BPIF’s Apprentice of the Year. Sapko operates the Ricoh digital press and has taken to it like a duck to water, profiling papers, taking it on himself to learn the software and ensuring the press produces the expected results and generally understanding the technology from top to bottom.
He is not alone. Blackmore has a policy of taking on an apprentice each year. “We think this is an excellent way to get youngsters into the industry. It has been a challenge to get people to see print as an attractive proposition and see it as an old fashioned industry, while this is not the case,” says Robbins.
“There are excellent opportunities, print is very creative. I joined Blackmore at 18 and want to be able to give youngsters in the local area the same opportunity.”
There are links to schools in the area, offering work experience and it employs PR to spread the word that Blackmore is a good local employer and to encourage people to come to join the business. The intention is to take on one youngster a year, building a team of people that share an outlook and who know each other outside work as well as during working hours.
Blackmore has previously been happy to employ people from the industry but who might have worked for companies in Poole, Bournemouth, Southampton or as far away as Exeter and Honiton. Keeping it local has immediate environmental benefits from reducing the mileage to work and the cohesion of the team.
Today that team numbers 58, down from 62 or so prior to Covid, so the company did not escape entirely unscathed from the trauma of the period.
“It has not been an easy four years,” says Robbins looking back on the journey from the MBO. “The company has completely transformed from what it was four years ago. It’s not just the £3 million investment in presses which is good for the company and good for the staff.”
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