The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Tradeprint plans post-covid growth
ADundee printing firm that made 37 workers redundant during the pandemic has announced expansion plans.
Tradeprint plans to double the size of its plant in Dundee this year as the business marks its 25th anniversary.
In 2020, the firm saw sales plummet to as low as 10% of regular business due to the pandemic, forcing the cutbacks.
About 28 staff – including half a dozen ex-employees – have been hired in the 18 months since.
Now the business is marking quarter of a century in Dundee and has plans to recruit again.
After a turbulent two years, managing director Charlene Joss believes the firm is on the road to recovery.
She said: “Covid absolutely hammered us.
“When it hit we had to make some painful decisions in terms of the redundancies given the uncertainty of when normality would resume.
“As the economy has recovered, we have slowly picked up again. We’re probably about 90% of the way there now.
“For some of our bread-and-butter paper based products – business cards, menus and flyers – digitalisation is going to change buyers’ behaviour.
“A lot fewer people are handing out business cards and people are having meetings on Zoom or on the phone.
“There’s a lot less inperson contact.
“People are using QR codes for menus or placing orders through an app.
“That has forced us to rethink our product diversification strategy but there is still a huge demand for print and always will be.”
Founded in 1997 as Fairprint, the company had enjoyed steady growth. It was named Printweek company of the year in 2015.
It was then bought for
more than £20 million by Dutch firm Cimpress in 2015.
During the 2017 financial year, staff were reorganised in preparation of a merger of UK operations with another of Cimpress’s companies, Exaprint.
Now Ms Joss is pleased to be overseeing the factory extension as they prepare to move into adjacent premises at Fulton.
“We’re at maximum capacity just now,” the managing director added.
“We are taking a bit of a leap of faith in our growth plans.”
The new building requires extensive refurbishment but she hopes the firm will have moved in by the summer.
Ms Joss, who took over as managing director in 2018, is delighted to be leading the firm through its milestone anniversary year.
“I could not be prouder. If you were going to lead the company through any year, it’s this 25th year in front of us,” she said.
“We’ve got big investment plans on the horizon. We have an incredibly talented team of people at Tradeprint.
“I can’t wait to celebrate our success with the people who have helped us reach this milestone.”
There were plans for a celebration to mark the anniversary yesterday but they had to be cancelled due to Covid restrictions.
Staff instead marked the occasion initially with a virtual meeting, with numerous celebration events being planned throughout the year.