We have decided that this year should be the Year of the Printer.
Here at Sprinters we are building on the success of the last year and hoping for great things this year. We are lucky enough to work for a very wide range of brilliant customers mainly in the Gloucester, Nailsworth and Stroud areas but also some further afield.
We can print almost anything
Sprinters are part of Severnprint, one of the country’s leading environmental printers with a 30 year history of providing quality print that is friendly to the environment. This is not a bandwagon that we have jumped on as it passed, it’s been a commitment of Severnprint for over 15years and we back it up with action that speak louder than words.
Our factory is powered by Ecotricity, we were their very first commercial customer. Ecotricity power is generated from wind farms and their webisite link can be seen from the Severnprint site. You can see a power source being constructed. Well worth a visit www.severnprint.co.uk you can go to it from the home page. We print using vegetable based inks as standard and where possible we recommend recycled paper. All our waste is disposed of in the most environmental way we can source. We employ someone full time to keep us up to speed on all matters environmental and to prove it, we have ISO14001 and ISO9001. We are FSC registered. Our commitment is long term and is an integral part of the business.
Perhaps we should call it the Year of the Green Printer!
Enough about us! This is supposed to be more about our customers than about ourselves.
The intention with this newsletter, apart from a window of opportunity for us to show off, is to put some of our customers in front of each other. We work for such a wide variety of people on a wide range of products that may well be of interest to your business.
Natural Cards make brilliant images.
We have printed quite a range of cards over the past year. All of the editions were printed on recycled boards. I had the chance to look at all these cards as the artwork came in and they range from some fantastic photography to some charming illustrations and drawings.
Alex Caminada. There’s a danger of me over enthusing about all the photography cards we have printed recently, Alex is one and you can see his work, not just here but at his website:
Georgina Brocklehurst…portrait photographer too! Brilliant portraits of children, this one is my favourite, it has one of those timeless qualities.
Both these photographers are Gloucestershire based.
David Wilson is based in West Wales and by contrast is a landscape photographer, and is in the right place to be one! His landscapes of the West Wales coast have a massive presence and were a joy to print.
One of our many company mottos is ‘if you have a great picture, print it!’ and we printed loads of them in the past year.
The Natural Card Company have consistently supplied us with charming images for their cards, and the last edition was no exception. They also have some great ideas, like the cards with hand made flower paper. They sourced some really special paper with wildflower seeds embedded in the paper and then cut out flowers to attach to some charming single colour cards that we printed for them on a recycled board. So you could have a card that was truly recycleable and plantable! It’s an idea that no one that I have met has not enthused about. Go and get some for your outlet!
Cows make great milk, true. They also make great paintings.
One is tempted to make a joke about a painting being past your eyes, but I won’t. Cows on Canvas is the work of Jackie Spurrier and we printed a very fine edition of her paintings of cows last year. We hope to herd a few more in the coming year. Bovine paintings are apparently very popular and having seen Jackie’s paintings I can understand why.
Card deals are still available for a short time yet. We can print an edition of 8 A6 cards all at the same time. That is 8 different designs. If you want an edition and a friend wants an edition then get together and share the cost and get them at an even better rate.
Postcards, even better! 16 sorts in full colour of the same print run can give you a price so low it won’t be a blow! Quality is absolutely tops and it is an ideal way of artists to get faithful colour reproduction.
At the other end of the scale you could print one A2 sheet for a complete A2 poster on the very finest paper of your choice as a limited edition. Severnprint did just that last year for Nicholas Trudgeon, one of the country’s leading illustrators of World War Two aeroplanes. We printed limited edition prints of several of his paintings and drawings. Pencil drawings were faithfully reproduced and the printed items looked as close as I have ever seen it possible to the original. These are one of the few things we print that we cannot send samples of! They would not be limited editions then.
As for all the others we have samples of printed cards that we’d be happy to send to you on request
Come the Revolution!
There’s a rushing revolution around the corner. It used to be the case that you had to wait quite some time to get work printed. That has changed over the past decade and people have got used to work being turned around in just a few days, and more recently in sometimes a few hours!
We have a system in place here to turn work around as quickly as you want it to be. We can’t promise miracles but we try.
Our standard ‘lead times ‘ are between 5 to 7 working days of the approval of the proofs we do for you. We can do better that that and often have!
Here’s what to tell us.If you let us know when you want it, we’ll see if we can do it for that deadline. If we can’t do it for then we’ll tell you.
Each day we have a production meeting to decide what gets done when and where the deadlines are. We put a delivery date on your job when the work order is raised and that is what we try to hit.
Speed up the Revolution!
Tell us when you need it at the outset, we’ll tell you if it is achievable.
Get your artwork right! Changes and amendments slow the process down.
Make sure you have proof read everything before we get it, even the smallest amend means the job has to go back to our pre press studio for the file to be opened on a computer and the amendment to be done.
We always allow for one proof in the price.
More revolutions per minute!
We hope to be investing in the very latest digital presses very soon. Keep an eye on our website for the latest on this! This will have an impact on what we can do for you. We should be able to produce and print work even quicker than we do now. It’s a revolution in printing that will have huge benefits for all our customers and ourselves!
Useful customers
Ross’ll fix it!
Computers are strange beasts and Ross is a computer vet. Vet being short for veteran. He’s had years of experience in dealing with pc’s that don’t behave and he’s a nice bloke too.
Sing? Do you?
Barbara Moinet helps with the Stroud Choral Society and they are always on the look out for those with a passion for singing. We print their programmes! Barbara also runs Kitchen Garden Preserves in Stroud, a great business that produces some of the finest local preserves.
Over but not out!
Rob Keene runs Over farm market! It depends on how you say it. The emphasis is Rob Keene runs Over Farm Market and not Rob runs over farm market. It’s been a tough time for him on the farm. His land was flooded in the dreadful July floods of last year, some of it up to a depth of 8ft. He had the misfortune to lose a huge crop of potatoes, and more recently has had A40 roadworks to contend with!!! Over is not just a food outlet, it’s a day out and they even do children’s parties and all sorts of other things to make shopping a pleasure. Try it.
Clobber. A great name for fashion Nailsworth and Malmesbury, fashion shops for discerning clientele. Run by Anna Read and her team, we printed digital mailers for them last year!
They sent us a database of customers and we printed the names and addresses on the mailers and posted the lot from here. Saving petrol and time; selling fashion. It was an instance of the best possible use of the digital press and our new machine will have even more potential for customers who want to create personalised mailers. No more licking and sticking!
Ecotopia. Great green products, some we made! Nailsworth and the ether are it’s home. They run a great website offering products that do little or no environmental damage. We designed some really great little sticker pads for them that have sold really well. We are not short of an idea or two, and if two heads are better than one then come and discuss your idea with us and we’ll see if we can print it for you.
Goff’s Brewery, kicks Red Barrel off the park. There was a time when beers as we know it might have died out. It’s thanks to people like Goff’s Brewery that it did n’t. Without the small independent brewers we might have had nothing but Watney’s Red Barrell from a metal keg. Long live independent business!
Prema. A good day for a glass of Bordeaux. Some years ago when I first joined Severnprint and was looking around for customers I chanced on a phone call to Prema. Normally with phone calls like this the potential customer tells me that they have just had ‘thousands of brochures and programmes printed by someone in Wales’
It’s not good for the salespersons self confidence .Prema were different, they are different. They told me that their main man had just fallen out with his printers and that I’d called at a good time. It’s like one of those days when the sun rises on a clear blue sky and ends with a cheap bottle of red that tastes like a vintage Bordeaux. Prema have been with us ever since; they supply great artwork we supply great print. Where’s the corkscrew?
Pump Supplies, flooded with enquiries. Not many people were unaffected by water in Gloucester in July 07. Severnprint were lucky and only lost a day of production. The rest of Gloucester should be thankful for Pump supplies. It was their machinery and pumps that helped prevent Gloucester losing power from a nearby flooded electricity sub station and jolly good job too!
We print their paperwork!
Natural Grocery in Cheltenham, take a look at the map! The Natural Grocery Store is the very best organic supermarket based in Leckhampton near Cheltenham. We did a great little plan of the store for them so rather than wander around the store looking for organically grown nuts in the fruit section you’ll know exactly where to find them in the nutty section. If the big supermarkets wanted to nick a good idea then this has to be it!
All that shoe leather they could save by telling you where everything is on a plan. The trouble is, of course, that they prefer you to wander aimlessly around so that you’ll spend more, or am I being cynical. Take a look at the Natural food store on line too.
Madgetts Farm, the place to buy your chicken. I remember having a discussion with Madgetts Farm about changing the name. In the end we all decided to keep the name and on reflection it was a really good idea. Madgett’s Farm sell free range poultry from their farm, which has always been called Madgett’s Farm, overlooking the Wye Valley outside Chepstow.
I like to try the goods from the people we print for, so I’ve bought topsoil and gravel from Morgan Supplies, seen the art at Stroud Valleys Art Space and Prema, tried the Scotch Eggs from the handmade Scotch Egg Company ( brilliant ) and I regularly buy chicken and duck from Madgett’s farm. Jamie Oliver would like it and so do I and many more of their customers.Apart from designing their label, we also print their order forms and had the idea for traceable orders for them. It made a big difference to them at Christmas time when customers wanting turkeys were queueing around the block for them.
Lightfoot Log Buildings They found us on the net, a new business that wanted to spend a little on making their presentations and quotations look really good. We printed some single colour folders and business cards all at the same time. They got what they wanted at a really good price and their buildings are worth a second look.
Nor Dan One of Gloucester’s real success stories, We have printed for Nordan for a number of years. Blessed with Matt, who knows all there is to know about putting together artwork and design!
FOD Sculpture Trail We want to cast a piece of quarry in the Forest of Dean and we’ll need a few bob to do it’
The Forest has a wealth of naturally beautiful places and a depth of artistic talent. The Forest of Dean Sculpture trail is an organisation that tries to get the funding to bring these project to life. Sculpture, art and design have a huge impact on localities. The Sculpture Trail attracts hundreds of visitors to the area and is money well spent.They spend some of their budget with us on postcards and action packs, which generate more interest all round.
Foreign Autoparts They can get you parts for any car, not just foreign ones. Are there any British cars left ? I thought all cars were foreign these days. Anyhow, they can get them!
Fourways Dental Here’s another client who’s services I use. I’d like to say it is a pleasure, but whoever heard of enjoying a trip to the dentist? On the other hand I’d always recommend them!
Future Advanced They are manufacturing in Gloucester and do the most amazingly technical things for aircraft. It’s thanks to businesses like this that planes stay in the air. On the other hand I know that they manufacture some amazing water sculptures so it’s art and design under one roof, just like us!
Gilded Lily Karen at Gilded Lily was one of the first clients to come to us for a full colour starter pack. Letterheadings, continuations, and invoices and a load of comps slips from a design supplied – looked great! She is in the film production business, take a look at her website when you are ready to film the book you’ve just written, but let us print the book first.
Green Apple Company We’ve only done one small job for Green Apple so far, some charming wrapping paper. They sell green stuff as the name suggests.
Two green businesses trading together, good plan.
Handmade Scotch Egg
Scotch eggs used to be considered a rather dull option. I blame the supermarkets and mass production. Mass production has much to answer for and mucking up what was probably a really good recipe idea was probably one of them. These Scotch Eggs go back to basic great ingredients and one of those is someone who is passionate about his product. The result is a revelation, an amazing product with a huge range of flavours. You’ll never but a supermarket scotch egg again
