He acquired Beacon Press in 2004 and merged it with the print firm he ran with his sister, East Sussex Press, to create a circa £12m business. And, after four years of relatively slow growth (by his own standards at least, a mere 25%), the business has skyrocketed.

In 2008/09, when a lot of companies were battening down the hatches to ride out the economic crisis, Handford took the decision to invest millions diversifying the £15m turnover business, while at the same time never forgetting its commercial litho roots. And in six short years the strategy has paid dividends, with Pureprint targeting sales of £58m this year.

Now, with backing from Business Growth Fund and more M&A activity on the cards, Handford clearly has no plans to take his foot off the gas anytime soon.

Darryl Danielli Up until a few years ago you were purely a litho house, you came to digital fairly late in some senses – how come?

Mark Handford Well, I don’t know about late, but basically at the back end of 2008 times got a bit tough, which I blamed on half term…

You’re joking?

[Laughs] No I really did, around October 2008, which is normally a busy time, it got a little but quiet and I told people it was because it was half term, not a global recession. Turned out to be the longest half term ever. We were 100% litho and had sales of around £15m and that’s when we got the first Indigos.

To help grow the business?

We dropped from £16m to £15m in 2008 and that’s when we started to look at digital presses. We spent around a year analysing the products in the market. That was probably the only time we spent a seriously long time analysing an investment, and that was because we couldn’t agree, but also because we knew we would be putting our necks on the block a bit by diversifying. We went to Drupa in 2008 and opted for the Indigos, two 5500s, which was definitely the right decision and they were flat out almost from day one. And we’ve never looked back.

So the diversification worked – is it still important to the business?

I’ve had two unconnected emails about 3D printing just today. That’s another thing we’re looking at.

Do you think you might get involved with 3D then?

Big time. I can’t say too much but we’re looking at becoming a beta for someone.

That’s interesting, because a lot of people think that 3D is only applicable to printers active in relevant markets rather than commercial printers?

We’re going to run some tests on it and see where we go from there. 

You received a £5.3m investment from Business Growth Fund, which took a minority stake in the business, how did that come about?

I’ve had a lot of approaches for the business, mainly from foreign investors, in the past few years...

…Private equity?

Yes, but also wealthy individuals wanting to put a global print group together, other businesses wanting to merge. But none of it interested me, they all wanted 100%.

Is that because you still enjoy it or because you haven’t finished yet?

Where do you finish? If I wasn’t doing this what would I do? It’s all well and good sailing off into the sunset, but I think I would get a bit bored with that. But back to the BGF, I spoke to a few people and asked for their opinions and luckily for me my father-in-law is involved in the finance world, so he gave me some good advice and the BGF kept cropping up. They were chomping at the bit, so I talked to them and we ‘danced’ if you like for 18 months. They’re very, very bright people. They’re the sort of people that don’t get involved with your business day-to-day, but they have very good contacts and I enjoy working with them. We have someone from the BGF on our board now – young, up for it and wanting us to move forward. When I was talking to foreign investors they didn’t really excite me, but with the support from BGF I can see even more growth coming and exciting and fun times ahead. The business got some investment to grow, so we did the Imprint deal on the same day we got the investment, probably one minute apart – which was interesting. It was the right thing for us though and now the company’s looking at its next acquisition.

In any particular markets?

We’re analysing a few at the moment, a lot of stuff is coming across our desk – it’s amazing how many people want to talk to you once someone like the BGF gets involved. You would be quite surprised how many; even some quite well known names, have been in touch.

Go on then surprise me…

I can’t do that, but it’s been quite an eye-opener. I think part of the reason so many deals have happened this past year is that entrepreneurs’ relief [on capital gains tax], which is 10% at the moment, is likely to change after May, so deals are being pushed through.

Back to Pureprint, since 2009 you’ve targeted dramatic growth; in a nutshell how have you done it?

Diversification has driven us to be a multi-platform business and that has been key to our growth.

Do have much presence on the digital side of things then?

We have a digital marketing agency called Gravity Matrix, so yes. We’ve also invested heavily in software, we have our own Purity suite of tools for clients, and this is the crazy part for me, between us and Imprint in Newcastle we have five programmers in India working for us, we have five programmers/developers in Newcastle and an architect to head them up, and we have a CTO here – if you had said to me just three years ago that we would have a CTO, an architect and 10 programmers in the business I would have said you were mad. Technology is huge here, in fact at the last count we were running 24 companies’ websites and most of them are web stores.

And it’s all happened quite quickly?

Well, I never hang around. There’s a standing joke here that you should never go on holiday because when you come back something will have changed. It’s a bit different now because we have a BGF representative on the board as well as a non-exec chairman. But even if we hadn’t been working with the BGF I would have appointed a non-exec because this year we’re projecting £58m in sales and I’ve never run a £58m business before, so I need people to come in and work with me that have different mentalities. Each business unit has got to have it own senior management to run that business.

I was going to ask you about that, the dramatic growth is fantastic and clearly technology has played a big part in it, but the biggest challenge for a lot of companies seems to be getting the right people in place.

Absolutely. I’ve been very good at going out and bringing people in; I will go and put myself about. Currently we’re bringing the various businesses, operation-wise, into one – I think you know who’s doing that for us. 

You mean Anthony Thirlby?

Exactly, and he’ll be with us for the next few months. Over the years we’ve also built a hand-picked sales team, and I don’t see a UK sales team that’s as strong as ours. I think I have seven ex managing directors of various print companies working here in the business, so we’ve literally gone out and hand-picked people and put them in the right jobs.

How are you attracting them?

My ridiculous good looks. They’re attracted here because it’s exciting. The heartbeat of the business is still high-quality litho print, whichever way you look at it. This year digital will account for over £20m, including wide-format, from nothing in 2009. But high-quality litho still accounts for the majority of our sales. Ink on paper is still at the centre of what we do, but we now have digital, pick and pack, fulfilment, data management... the list is endless.

So you’re not ashamed of being called a printer then?

We’re still about print; like everyone we think of ourselves as a marketing solutions provider and we offer the full-blown multi-channel marketing options, loads of personalisation – but all of it revolves around print. As far as some clients are concerned anyone can print, but that’s not actually true – there is a difference between quality print and someone who just chucks some ink on paper as quickly and as cheaply as they can. The team takes pride in what we do and I think that attracts the right people too, and then those new people help fuel growth.

But back to the beginning, Pureprint came into being after you bought Beacon Press and merged it with your business East Sussex Press…

When the Beacon deal came about East Sussex Press was a little high-street printer like you could find in any town – a fourth-generation family business. When I started running it there were 12 of us and it had a shop counter like the local Chinese takeaway. It was a house really, that we just kept extending as we put presses in. 

It was a proper high-street printer then?

Oh yes, when I look back on it I sometimes think that we were ahead of our time. The biggest part of our work was stationery that we advertised in the Exchange & Mart, that was like web-to-print in its day – well, it was print-to-print. We would sell packages of so many business cards, letterheads, etc and my first job there was packing them up sending them out. It was all letterpress too, there was no litho.

When was this?

1985. And we didn’t get our first four-colour press until 1992 or 93. Don’t get me wrong, we had some great times – I think that’s where always wanting to have fun in business stems from. There would be times when we would just shut up shop and go down the pub and most lunchtimes we would go down to the park and play football. I took over the business because... Well, first I left the business because I wanted to do other things and I did okay. I told the family that I didn’t want to go back there unless we were going to invest and grow the business, and to be fair that was when we made our first big investment: a two-colour Heidelberg SORMZ. We also got our first ever salesman, but then I decided I wanted to do that and for whatever reason the firm really took off. So from my mid 20s [around 1992] I started to run it and when we took over Beacon in late 2004 we had grown it to 85 staff and around £6m with decent profits.

How did the Beacon deal come about?

By then we were running across several different units and I knew I needed to get it under one roof. I was looking at some units that happened to be on same estate as them, and when I saw the Beacon site and I just decided that I would write them a cheeky letter to see if they wanted to sell. I’d read all about them in PrintWeek, environmental this and that, latest technology, etc. But when you looked at the numbers it wasn’t doing that great; the owners hadn’t grown the business in years. I remember when I looked at that it had 25% new business every year, but the turnover never changed, so the customer retention wasn’t great either. So, anyway, I wrote them a letter and the next day I got a phone call to say yes they might sell and we agreed a good price.

But they were same size as you at the time, around £6m sales, so that was a big deal, how did you finance it?

A little bit of everything. East Sussex was very successful and a lot of people at the time said ‘what are you doing? You’re taking on debt and a big risk’.

So why did you?

Honestly, I was bored. The board meeting was me, I was managing director, sales director, production director – I basically just argued with myself. My sister [Pureprint HR director Bridget Massey] was the only other shareholder and she worked very hard for the business managing the back office. I wouldn’t have been able to do many of the things I’ve done if it hadn’t been for her and it’s the same here at Pureprint. 

But if East Sussex was so profitable how come you were bored?

We were making good money, but I knew it wouldn’t last because the economy wouldn’t have let it. And on the 1 January each year I more or less knew what we were going to make on 31 December. It was boring. I didn’t mind taking a risk – call it entrepreneurial, call it what you will – and that’s where the quick decision-making comes from – if I’m honest not a lot of thought used to go into the decision making process back then. But now there are people in the business that will check me, but I still make decisions very quickly as I’m still involved in all areas, so I know what’s going on.

And you know when you’re being bullshitted too then?

Exactly, and there’s plenty of that going on [laughs]. But back to the Beacon deal, I remember coming back from London after signing the papers wondering what the hell I had done. But that’s what it’s all about; the best thing I did when I bought the business was asking to speak to all the then directors. The owner wasn’t keen, but in the end he relented because I made it a condition and it was clear after I spoke to them that they were chomping at the bit to be let off the leash and that was what convinced me it was the right deal. I bought into the people, not just the business, and all of those people bar one, who retired, are still here. 

Are you good at spotting talent then?

For whatever reason we very rarely seem to get it wrong; you know within minutes if it’s right.

What’s your secret in identifying the right people?

I really don’t know, I guess it might be a chemistry thing – but I can’t put my finger on it. Fundamentally its people that drive the business, we’ve got a fantastic team in all areas of the company.

It’s interesting though because so many growing businesses seem to get stuck around the £10m mark and it always seems to be that getting the right people is what’s holding them back?

You’re absolutely right; the number of businesses that get to £9m or £10m and then get stuck is incredible. Even buying Imprint, those guys had a good business but couldn’t get over that hump. It’s sometimes about taking a risk – businesses worry that they can’t afford to hire the right people. It’s not like kit when you can easily calculate your return on the investment, you often don’t get a ROI on people for a couple of years. I’m a great believer in giving people time if you have faith in them.

Nice to hear. In terms of the other important people in your business, do you have such a thing as a typical client?

Not really. We work with print managers, 50% of the FTSE 100 companies direct, fine art, publishers, charities, retail – our client base is incredibly diverse. The amount of high-end retail has grown phenomenally in the past two years. Digital has changed the way people buy print in terms of quality print on uncoated; we print some beautiful projects digitally. But our big thing was that we were expecting to move lots of litho work onto digital, it just hasn’t happened.

So digital is pure growth then?

Yes, but litho has grown for us too – it’s just not grown as dramatically because it didn’t start at zero. Print, all print, is having a real renaissance with young people; it’s just not about being online anymore. Being online and gathering information about who’s touching that bit of paper is one thing, but how many emails do we all receive? We’ve got one retail client whose print spend dropped dramatically over the past five years because they moved into email, but recently their print spend has gone through the roof – they’ve probably spent twice as much on print in the last six months than they spent in the entire year before. And the reason is simple: print works.

You mentioned earlier that diversification has been key to growth, there’s a school of thought that printers should focus on one particular market or product and that’s where the opportunities are?

I’ve been told that too. But we are specialist; we’re just specialise in a lot of different areas. We have people throughout the business that are experts in different areas, that’s how we’ve managed to diversify so successfully. A great statistic for us is that our largest client is just 3.5% of our turnover, you just don’t get that in most print businesses – the highest it’s been in the past decade is when one customer was just over 4%.

Is your client churn high though?

No, not at all. I would say that six of our top 10 clients have been with us for five years or more. Also we have clients looking to spend a couple of hundred thousand with us that think they’re not big enough for us and we won’t be interested, but they would be big clients for us. We encourage the small company feel, the personal touch – that’s still very, very important to us.

If you’re looking at nudging £60m though, it’s going to be difficult to keep that small company feel isn’t it?

Absolutely. As you grow a business it’s very easy to lose some of that, but we work hard to make sure we don’t and again it boils down to the people.

Do you still consider yourself a salesman first and foremost?

Me? No, not really it’s bit of everything. It’s about being flexible enough to go the City one day and talk about the company and our numbers, or going to meet a client and talk about some business or supporting some of the sales guys. You’ve literally got to be able to turn your hand to anything these days. I’ve learned a lot in the past couple of years about how to evaluate a business, how to look properly at a balance sheet, including the hidden stuff.

What’s been the steepest learning curve?

None of it has ever really fazed me, learning new things keeps me excited and I’ve always been able to cope with it. The hardest thing can sometimes be people, keeping them motivated and perhaps learning to let go a little more.

Do you sometimes have to check yourself sometimes when you get a little too involved in a certain area and lose sight of the bigger picture?

I think all business owners are guilty of that to some degree, but I rely on my teams to run the various business units. We’re introducing much more structure to the business to make sure we’re ready for the next stage of our growth. That was one of the other benefits of someone from the BGF being on the board, our main board meetings are much more productive. I love it. the meetings used to take all day, now its just three hours and I think we achieve far more in those three hours than we ever did in a day. 

Happy days.

At the end of the day running a business is about making money, that’s what the BGF is helping us with, it’s not about what we can turn over. We know that we need help to take it to the next level; we can’t know everything so having that fresh perspective on the board is really helpful.

So many businesses seem to be held back by a business having one figurehead, one leader and there’s just not enough of him or her to go around and the business suffers as a result?

I think that’s the case in a lot of businesses. It reminds me so much East Sussex all those years ago, when you look at your business and you realise that your business would be nothing without you and you just can’t do any more and the biggest thing stopping your business from growing is you the owner. You see a lot of that in print.

Your biggest M&A deal to date was for Newcastle-based wide-format group Imprint, which you bought in December. How did that happen?

Well, that’s the funny story. They used to do a lot of work for us and one of the guys I had a print management business with, well I bought him out and he left and joined Imprint and decided to do the same [print management] thing with them, which he wasn’t allowed to do. So I threatened to sue them. One of the owners called me and asked to meet for a chat, so I met with him and after two or three drinks we shook hands and said how about me buying the business.

Fantastic.

It wasn’t quite as easy as that as negotiations went on for a while, but we hit it off straight away. It boils down to the chemistry thing again. They didn’t have to sell their business, it’s a good business and it’s profitable, it’s got a great purpose-built site and there’s lots of potential to grow it. In fact the only problem the due diligence threw up was a letter from me threatening to sue them.

And are there any more acquisitions planned? 

I really want to buy a business in London, because we need a proper London base. But I’ve wanted to do that for a while.

On the agency side?

I’ve looked at every kind of business, a fairly large digital printer, a large commercial printer and a few other smaller litho/digital businesses. But people often have a value in mind that’s just not a realistic valuation, the valuations are pretty straightforward. The businesses that are run by an ex FD or by someone who has a good understanding of finance are more likely to come up with a reasonable valuation. Sales- or manufacturing-led businesses, not so much.

Do they tend to be the lifestyle type businesses?

By and large. It’s an interesting process though, looking at companies, and quite an eye opener.

What have been the biggest challenges for you though?

Well half term, of course, but other than that I can’t really pinpoint one thing. 2008 was tough, but it was for everybody and for us it was only the second time we had lost money since East Sussex was created in 1926 as far as I’m aware. It wasn’t scary, but it was a moment to revaluate and take a bit of risk.

So if 2008 hadn’t happened do you think you might not have got into digital?

We might not have diversified to the extent we did. I think 2008 brought everything into sharp focus. Everyone was looking at cutting back on staff, but we actually increased headcount. The only time something like that happened before was back at East Sussex Press when we had a client that was more than 30% of our turnover and I lost it to print management overnight. But it was the best thing that ever happened to the business, the following year we had a best year of trading. Everyone in the business was focused; it was the best kick up the arse we could have had. 

Is there one person within the business that you use as a sounding board?

There isn’t one single person, I’m fortunate to be spoilt for choice in the business and can talk to different people for different things. My whole aim is to surround myself with the strongest management team possible, and now I want to see those people grow with the business. One day, who knows, maybe I’ll be able to become non-exec almost.

Do you have a succession plan in mind then?

I guess in some way that’s what I’m doing without even realising it.

So, a fairly obvious last question then – does that mean you’re subconsciously planning to step back from the business?