Meet the team

Managing Director

I started in print at the age of 20 but have been in and around our family business most of my life!

It was important for me to work and study in other industries and companies, working in engineering I wanted to build on my interest in motorsport. When full time employment began at Remous Print - I started in the bindery and have worked for a minimum of 12 months in every position in the company, from folding to guillotining, printing to marketing, unloading lorries, shrink wrapping, perfect binding, cutting and creasing , platemaking and .. well you get the point.

It is important to me that I have genuine full and complete experience in every machine or process in the company - something that is missing from a lot of print providers.

I moved into a marketing role in in 2005 and worked to develop our web presence as well as growing our marketshare, a tough time to say the least, this is something you have to do to appreciate and sure we have all been there! Fortunately we worked to our strengths and I was able to create some niche websites we still work from today shortrunbooks.co.uk and shortrunpackaging.com

2007 I moved into Production Management along with Keith, at this time we invested in Management Information System to help run our company more effectively and enable more information for clients. Over the last 7 years has been a challenging but every rewarding time, working to keep our print service relevant and in demand during a massive change in the industry, the internet, changing needs, massive over capacity and a recession has changed the print and graphic arts industry for good, I pleased and proud to have been able to steer Remous Print through this and making us stronger company for it.

In my spare time I enjoy motorsport, racing cars is something I have always done but is sporadic now due to time constraints, three children consume lots of time! I also enjoy martial arts, kickboxing & Jujutsu, reading, personal development, cooking Japanese food and fitness training. Most of all spending quality time with my wife Carla and our three children.

Director

My career in printing only really began at the age of 30, when circumstances dictated that I closed my motor repair business and looked for something else to do. All my life I had been a tinkerer, fascinated by what made mechanical things work, and was involved pretty heavily on motor racing from my teenage years, to the extent that I was publishing a small magazine on the subject. Having just purchased a derelict railway station, with several vacant outbuildings, the manager of the print shop   that was printing the magazine suggested we set up in business to print the magazine ourselves, so in 1978, Review Publications came into being. My partner, David Duley, was the printer, on an ancient Rotaprint press, and I learnt the skills of folding, stapling and trimming the work. We were offered work by a retired London print rep, who had moved to the area, and thus began business relationships that are still going today, notably Bishops Move Group, All England Tennis Club, and the British Driving Society. After 18 months, we took a bold step forward by joining up with another studio based partnership, who had access to more work than we could cope with, so Remous Ltd was formed on March 1^st 1980, with new equipment housed in a newly built double garage at my home. This was soon outgrown, and within two years we moved again in the village on our present site, although at that time it was the ground floor of and old glove works, where we took on a massive desk diary project, which would be the mainstay of our business for many years.

In 1984, the whole site was sold for development, and we were offered the opportunity of building a bespoke factory, which cost the sum of £60,000-£20,000 for the site and £40,000 for the building! This factory is where we are still based, although a large extension was built in 1998, when we joined forces with Keith Sparks’ business, which added new skills and turnover to Remous Ltd. In 2000, we bought our first brand new Heidelberg press, having always bought used machines before, and this was followed by further machinery upgrades which took us into full colour printing with one pass. Heidelberg was the world’s top supplier of printing machinery for many decades, but more recently, Japanese companies have taken over the role, which had led us to purchase two new Komori presses over the past five years, together with associated finishing equipment.

By virtue of age, my role in the business is now diminishing, but I am delighted to have a son who is driving the company forward, with new ideas and technology that has led to further services being offered, and other businesses brought into the company to strengthen it for the challenges ahead.

Director

I started in the print trade on 29^th July 1974 at the erstwhile Chard Printing Company, a letterpress company, that had previously traded as Youngs Printers since the Victorian era, some of the kit looked like it had been there since then! In October 1976 the owners closed the business and as an indentured apprentice I was moved to their Axminster works, apprenticeship terms then being five years. During this period I attended the Exeter College of Art & Design, School of Printing on block release, achieving City & Guilds basic letterpress craft printing with credit, followed by the advanced certificate again with credit. I was also awarded machine printer of the year in both my third & fourth years.

On completing my apprenticeship it was obvious letterpress was obsolete, moving into being a niche process at best, having spent most of the last two years at college, studying lithographic printing, it was time to move on. In 1979 I joined the RGM Group initially in Crewkerne, then from 1980 in Yeovil, printing greetings cards and print for melamine lamination. The management decided spare capacity should be utilised for commercial print, a sales director was recruited and as I had by then completed a two year, printing production management City & Guilds course, I became estimator and production controller, for the lithographic side of the business. RGM also had an extensive silk screen printing business, catering mainly for the estate agency market nationwide. At that time all of our multi colour work was produced on single colour Heidelberg & Thompson presses, with multiple passes, I can remember having to match a fourteen spot colour textile print, also matching ceramics, colour matching to exacting standards without Pantone specifications. After attending college on block release for four years, then evening school for two years I was awarded the Licentiate Award of the City & Guilds Institute.

In late 1986 my employers approached me with an offer to help me set up my own company, utilising their equipment and retaining a certain amount of their business. Thus in April 1987 KS Press Ltd was formed, using a part of RGMs premises with a Heidelberg Kord press, guillotine, folding machine and saddle stitcher. The premises were extended in 1990 with a self contained unit for KS Press, a second press was installed, a Roland Favorit B2 single colour press. We subsequently installed a two colour version and purchased RGMs share holding.

In late 1996 I approached Graham Bunter and David Duley at Remous Ltd. Our lease was soon to be reviewed, it was pretty obvious our landlords wanted us to move, as following the sale and relocation of their business, we would be the only tenants in 25% of the building. Negotiations were completed and we were finally incorporated into Remous Ltd. on 1^st March 1998.

KS Press had started to move into packaging print in 1994, with two good customers who are both still with Remous today. My responsibilities have seen me expand this part of the business, while still retaining various commercial clients and getting my hands dirty on the shop floor most days.