Lucy Ratcliffe and Samantha Kehoe bought Signmaster earlier this year and took over from well-known industry figure Phil George. They also own highly-successful trade printing business Print Monkey, which was founded in 2010, and is located on the same Whitchurch trading estate.

“I always admired Signmaster from over the road, and I will never forget how in 2012 we had a marketing consultant come in to Print Monkey. The first thing he did was give us a blank piece of paper and said ‘I want you to draw where you will be in five years’. I drew the Signmaster building with my car outside of it,” laughs Ratcliffe, adding: “I’m being dead honest.”

She continues: “That is what has materialised, which is pretty cool. When the opportunity came up, Samantha and I already knew the team at Signmaster very well and we had been their customer for six years. This meant we weren’t cold to the industry or the products they sold.

“So, Print Monkey is now the print room for Signmaster and it has been a real blessing for many of Signmaster’s customers. Many are now using Print Monkey’s facilities as an overflow production facility when they have too much work, or need a job turning around really quickly.”

The new owners have certainly hit the ground running, and one of their first decisions was to take on a new head of consumables, Glen Nunkoo, who has come across from Roland DG. “The message is that we have totally refocused and reinforced this department and I am very proud of the excellent work Glen is doing,” says Ratcliffe. 

Signmaster’s now hugely increased print production facilities has had the result of helping to increase its hardware sales, as the team can now produce samples much more quickly using their customer’s own files. Equally, the consumables team can pass different lines of media through the print room to test and then give that feedback to the client.

The new HP reseller status is also a feather in Signmaster’s cap and compliments its Roland and OKI hardware lines. This new status is even more pivotal given HP’s recent announcement that it has partnered with Summa to create a print-and-cut line for its Latex devices.

The plans going forwards for Signmaster are also very impressive, and in addition to a full rebrand later in the year, the team are working on an e-commerce website that will allow for 24/7 consumables ordering.

Ratcliffe also explains they will be starting a workshop programme to help customers with different problems and issues improve their skill sets and variety of products. They will also run regular workshops on business management and marketing—making Signmaster a fully-rounded service provider.

If you have an interesting story or a view on this news, then please e-mail news@signlink.co.uk

Follow Brendan on: