The Weymouth-based company was founded by managing director James Collins after a serious injury put a halt to his ten-year career in the film and television industry.

“After a few months with very limited mobility and with the bills still needing to be paid, I leant on another skill set and area of knowledge graphic design, and set up Simply Design, offering a design service to local businesses,” Collins explains.

He adds: “It wasn’t long before I was being asked if I could offer a printing service, so not the kind of person that says no, I scraped together enough funds to purchase a small SRA3 printer. Using this and some trade contacts I already had, I began to offer a design and print service which quickly proved more popular than I could have imagined.”

For Collins, it was the young, fresh approach and fast actioned responses to enquiries that helped to establish a solid early foundation.

With Print Shop Express officially set up, Collins moved into new premises and developed a website offering print and signage in the UK. “This is when the touch paper was really lit,” Collins says.

An ethos of reinvestment has enabled the company to continue to grow over the last ten years

At this point, the company was offering print, signs, vehicle graphics, and design to clients including international brands.

With an ethos of reinvestment enabling production quality and deadlines to remain controllable, the company has continued to grow over the last decade and this ethos is something Collins says is still present today.

“Aside from this, every hour spent not quoting, designing, or manufacturing went into learning as much about the trade as possible including materials, processes, and technology. This has never stopped, allowing us to always offer the best solution for the brief.”

Most recently, Print Shop Express has invested in the latest Ricoh digital production press which can handle business cards through to A4 landscape booklets. Alongside this, the company has upgraded its wide-format machine and installed the latest Roland technology for production of wide-format print like stickers, shop fascias, and vehicle graphics.

Collins’ wife Holly joined the business two years ago and became a crucial factor in navigating the business during a challenging two-year period

In January 2020, Collins’ wife Holly joined the business bringing with her a decade of print management and production experience. Holly’s experience in client relations and technical knowledge has been a crucial factor in the day-to-day management of the business, as well as in navigating and driving the business forward during the events of the last two years.

Collins adds: “When I started Print Shop Express, I had less than £250 to invest and had no idea that it would grow in such a positive way. We are completely independent with no outside investment and despite starting up at the tail end of a recession and more recently navigating a global pandemic, we have become the trusted option for so many businesses and our success is attributed to them.

“We are immensely proud of our local and national client base – we strive to put in time, effort and care into them and their businesses and will continue to do so in the future.”

If you have any news, please email carys@linkpublishing.co.uk or join in with the conversation on Twitter and LinkedIn.