Landmark year ahead as Headley Brothers celebrates 130 years in business!

2011 will be a landmark year for Headley Brothers when it celebrates an astounding 130 years in print and media. Established in 1881 by Herbert and Burgess Headley in a small room above their father’s Ashford-based grocery store, the company’s origins lay in the printing of paper bags, billheads and circulars. Today, the company offers a vast menu of print and media services, all delivered from a single site on London’s doorstep.

The company’s ethos has always been one of continuous and intelligent investment in the latest technologies to ensure a flexible, cost-effective and efficient service to all its customers. Each decade has seen Headley Brothers significantly invest in new machinery and building expansion, in addition to staff training and development. The company's ISO 9001 and Investor in People accreditations underline this.

Headley Brothers has remained a market leader following its progressive investment in the most efficient technologies and equipment. For example, the Heidelberg Speedmaster 104 4-colour sheetfed press with CPC installed in 1994 was one of the first in the UK, and the Heidelberg Sunday 2000 24-page web press was the only one of its kind in the UK when it arrived in 2000. Even in 1900, the company was a market leader. It installed linotype setting machines – a brand new invention for setting of casting letters – which had previously only been seen in America.

From digital, sheetfed and web printing to finishing and fulfilment, mailing and dispatch, Headleys today offers an all-round service. Combine this with variable data and dimensional printing capabilities, online editions, digital asset management and web design, and you can be sure of a quality solution to all your print and media requirements.

“We can print one to 350,000 copies with a complete range of seamless services, which I believe is unique in the UK at this scale,” says managing director Roger Pitt. “We offer web offset, sheetfed and digital print, so if print runs contract, as they are doing in the current market, our spread of technology allows us to produce magazines in the most cost-effective way.

“It gives customers flexibility with pagination and page formats and opportunities in regard to trim sizes. With the sheetfed presses we can offer variable cut off, while if a publication is growing, then we have web offset to help with higher volumes. And digital of course means that customers can look to target publications more effectively.”

True to its focus on diversification and investment in newer technologies, investments in recent years have included HeadTurner, Headleys’ own branded page-turning software enabling the provision of online magazine editions. Digital editions offer greater interactivity with advertising and editorial, with the option to include video and audio content. Complementary to the printed form, digital editions can be distributed quickly, opening the door for publishers to offer, for example, a weekly digital version to supplement a monthly printed magazine. This keeps the title up-to-date and available to the widest audience.

After 130 years in the business, Headley Brothers remains a first class print and media provider, and that means having to make continuous investment in its plant and printing capability. The company’s most recent investments include its third 10-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster, equipped with CutStar reel-sheeting; a new Kodak NexPress SE2500 Digital Production Colour Press with Fifth Imaging Unit and new KODAK Dimensional Printing Technology, and a high quality, high volume digital mono printer. Whatever the future may hold, Headley Brothers is perfectly placed to offer the best solution in the most cost-effective way.

December 2010

For further information please contact: Julia Inshaw, Headley Brothers Ltd: 01233 623131, julia.inshaw@headley.co.uk