Business

As Head of PR for Contra Vision Jo Bentley understands the demands of the print and graphics business, and as a qualified mindfulness trainer she also knows techniques for combating workplace stress. Here’s her advice.

Talk about making a statement! In June, Surrey-based SignAway, produced a 250m x 5m multi-coloured carpet and laid it the entire length of London Bridge.

For someone who didn’t really want to joint the family print business Mark Simpson has stuck at it longer than his late father and company founder could ever have imagined. It’s 32 years since the man, who since the start of the 1990s been at the helm of the Simpson Group in Washington, Tyne and Wear, first joined what was then Simpson Print.

Charlotte Graham-Cumming is a director at Ice Blue Sky, an inbound content marketing agency. She works with CMOs and business owners to help them develop marketing strategies, brand positioning and making the shift to inbound marketing. Here she provides tips on how to best allocate your marketing budget.

PressOn has become a high-profile company within the large-format sector having made a number of ‘firsts’ in terms of kit investment over the last few years, and having taken a decision to make more noise about what it can do. It’s a strategy that has put co-founder Andy Wilson centre stage, but is it paying off? I went to the firm’s new home in Chatham to find out.
By Lesley Simpson

Knowing when to merge and move on is something Graham Clark knows something about, having done it throughout his career, most latterly integrating McKenzie Clark with Icon under Chime Communications parentage. Understanding that bigger can make for better business has been a cornerstone of Clark’s career.

Lesley Simpson joined over 300 PSPs in Belgium last month as Agfa attempted to wow them with its scale and scope. Here’s the upshot.

Ya?ar G?venen is the new president of Fespa. Here he sets out his stall in his own words.

As a wide-format PSP that runs a W2P service, the Simpson Group is well placed to offer advice on how to successfully integrate the offering. The group’s online print manager Rachel Tait explains.

Raccoon, in Kent, has been going since 1992 and has become synonymous with vehicle wrapping. But it is branching out. A few years ago it introduced Promohire - a promotional vehicle hire service. Now it’s launched www.bigprintfast.com for creatives and trade work. So why has such a specialist print company decided to diversify and is it yet paying off? I asked founder and MD Richard Clark.
By Lesley Simpson

Las Barrow keeps his poker face when asked what he thinks makes him a managerial ‘Leading Light’, which he undoubtedly is having turned a £2 stake in a new business venture back in the mid ‘60s into the £53m turnover Augustus Martin of today.

Walter Hale looks to the past to help you face a future where change is all around.

Is print a creative industry?

That’s the question I recently put to John Kampfner, CEO, Creative Industries Federation.

“I’ve never wanted to own a big company; I want a small company where I know what’s going on but that punches above its weight. My philosophy is to keep one step ahead of the competition in terms of technology to do that.