Rosetown Print changes hands
Tauranga-based Kale Print to keep running the business as usual
After 43 years, Te Awamutu’s David and Trudi Morris have sold Rosetown Print, one of New Zealand’s most established specialist printers, and are ready to print their retirement travel itinerary.
The Morrises would like to stress that Rosetown Print is not closing — it has been sold to like-minded new owners.
Family-run, Tauranga-based Kale Print has bought the business after working alongside the Morrises for many years.
David started his printing apprenticeship in the early 1970s at the Te Awamutu Courier under George Warburton, son of founder Arthur.
“My old man said to me, ‘If you go out and find a job, a trade, then you can leave school’. I wanted to be a mechanic to start with, but printing popped up and I’ve never looked back,” he said.
“We’ve still got two of the original machines that we had down there on [Alexandra St].”
David finished his apprenticeship in 1975, and went on to work at Typecraft in Carlton St.
His retirement 48 years later hasn’t come easily and he has loved his time in the industry thanks to his loyal customers. Ink is in his blood.
“We saw a business advertised in Tokoroa. We bought it, but moved it all up here. David would trek down
a couple of times a month as he needed to. Our first client was probably from Tokoroa,” Trudi said.
From there Rosetown Print opened its doors in 1981, where
Simply The Best Takeaways is in Sloane St, before moving further down the street to its present site in 1996.
The business quickly grew from a
small shop to a large, purpose-built printing factory servicing clients throughout New Zealand
Over the years David and Trudi added to their equipment buying out print businesses as they closed, including the Te Awamutu Courier commercial printing department and Offset Printing.
“In the good old days, I’d have the machine running and I’d go home for tea while the machine was still printing,” David said.
“It’s certainly changed a lot since we started with digital printing, it’s made a huge difference. You can come in for a job and it can be done within four hours now.”
The couple have had many longterm employees over their 40-plus years and Jayne Fortis has been with them for much of that time.
Kale Print has appointed Fortis as its new Te Awamutu branch manager.
“There will now be more possibilities and options for our clients as Kale Print offer a wider range of products. The Te Awamutu office will continue to operate as usual and customers will see very little difference when they pop in to the shop,” Fortis said.
“The team at Kale Print are really supportive and are nice people to work with. We’ve worked with them for many years outsourcing some of our really big jobs there.
“We’ve talked about it for a while, that Kale buying the business would be the best-case scenario. I trust in their products and I trust in who they are because I’ve worked with them. They’ve never let us down and they’re just the warmest people.”
David and Trudi know their business is going into good hands.
“We’d like to thank everybody for their support over the last 44 years. Please make sure that you support Kale like you’ve supported us,” Trudi said.
David said they had had loyal customers and they wouldn’t have been in business this long without them.
“We’ve kept them going and they’ve kept us going. It works both ways,” he said.
David hasn’t been well recently, so once he and Trudi clear out their shop they hope to travel and spend as much time with family as possible.
They’ve worked hard and enjoyed their business, but now it’s time to turn a new leaf.
Kale Print general manager Peter Lloyd said David approached them some time ago about buying the business.
Upon hearing that David was unwell, they decided it was the right thing to do.
They didn’t want the business to close or to lose the Morrises’ legacy in Te Awamutu.
“It’s similar to Endeavour Print in Whitianga. That business was looking at shutting down and we wanted to keep it alive to carry on servicing the Coromandel. For us it’s about giving the customers what they want,” Peter said.
Kale Print also owns Rotorua’s Advocate Print, as well as its main headquarters in Tauranga.
The multi-award-winning and Carbon Zero-certified business has picked up retiring family businesses to keep them running within their respective communities.
“Kale Print has a long-standing, proud tradition of community support. Supporting our local organisations and that extends to our group of companies in the regions,” Kale Print brand manager Tessa Lawrence said.
“It’s important to us that we look after our community, our teams and foster a culture where our people feel valued and supported.”
Kale Print has been around almost as long as Rosetown Print, founded in 1984.
“There’s generations of ink running in the veins. Stephen Kale the director, his father was also in printing. The Kale children obviously came up in the industry too. Stephen’s two sons and daughter are also heavily involved in the company,” Tessa said.
“Brent Kale as the operations manager at Kale Print, Gavin Kale as production manager and Rochelle Charteris as a graphic designer, now based in Taranaki.
“We are considered the printer’s printer New Zealand-wide. We do a lot of trade print because we have and continue to invest in the technology in order to meet market demand.”
Kale Print provides the option to create labels, packaging and signage too.
“What we’ve found with the group, now that we’ve got printing in Tauranga, Rotorua, Te Awamutu and Whitianga in the Coromandel, it’s given us that diversity so if we do have complications we’ve got other staff in other regions that can support us. It gives reliability,” Peter said.
“It’s about passion for print in a tough industry,” Tessa said. “[As well as] helping out the communities to retain those services in the regions.”