We won’t pretend we didn’t notice one or two significant political events that took place in 2016 and were, at some considerable lengths, discussed, debated and discussed again. And whilst the world (including us) reflected on the latest turn of events, our presses continued to run, our team remained focused at getting the job done and during what inarguably would be deemed a period of uncertainty, we achieved some good things and in fact some great things. We acknowledge that although there are always lessons to be learned when things don’t quite go to plan, it’s important to celebrate when things do go well.

We started the year making a significant investment into our latest press; an SX102 10P, allowing us to reduce make-ready times, increase efficiency and broaden our product offering. The benefits we’ve seen from this are a very positive impact on quality and around 25% improved performance against the press it replaced. So the year was off to a good start. In February we underwent a reassessment from Investors in People, leading to us maintaining the accreditation, which currently only 2% of UK printers hold. To add to that, later in the year we were crowned Customer Service Team of the Year at the PrintWeek Awards in October, an accolade which we could not have been more delighted to receive. Not that we stopped there, of course. We then rolled out our Pensord People Strategy to improve communication all ways and to ensure that everyone has a continued input in addressing the little things that can make a big difference and we’ve had no shortage of fantastic suggestions from our team. What’s also hugely important to us is that the publishing industry has had a healthy share of success too, judging by the exciting and encouraging number of launch titles we’ve been very happy to be involved in producing this year.    

So whilst we’ve experienced shocks, surprises and certainly some uncertainty, we’ve still got plenty to smile about looking back, and plenty to be excited about looking forward….