A very intimate customer relationship

Starting out life as a traditional sign writing firm, Octink has come a long way since the 60s and now serves as a mega-producer of signage, graphics, interiors, and build solutions for the property, construction, retail, and events sectors. The award-winning company has scored contracts with big brands and its managing director, Mike Freely, is seeing the company go from strength-to-strength.

Freely started out in the construction and residential property industry himself with Wimpey Construction and Wimpey Homes, where he was involved in marketing and business development. Come 1998 and Freely joined Octink, which had just ten members of staff at the time—a stark comparison to the 105 full time in-house staff members that now work for the company.

“I joined the owner, Will Tyler, who’s now our chief executive and I now hold the position of managing director, which as you can imagine has many hats to it which you fulfil within the premise of being an SME still,” says Freely, adding: “I get involved in absolutely everything from the compliance side of the business, to sales and marketing, to the strategic side of the business.”

Octink has worked with big clients for a number of years, including Taylor Wimpey, Crest Nicholson, and Berkeley Property Developers. Jobs range from high volume print, to health and safety signage, to livening up sales and marketing environments.



Freely highlights price and producing high quality products as key drivers for success but notes customer service as ultimately what makes them stand out. He says: “It’s important to develop a strategy that is based around delivering fantastic customer service. If you have people who are on call and insightful, that all goes to developing the long-term relationships, which then goes on to make you a trusted supplier and partner. We are passionate about developing this customer intimacy and maintaining that.

“From starting out as such a small business, the constant throughout that time has been that the people who work here are very personable and we understand the value of the customer. We like to build long-term relationships with those customers, it really is as simple as that. You grow to be trusted, recommended, and then you find yourself developing long-term relationships with good people who then tend to give you more and more work.”

Early adopters

For a business that takes on jobs as wide ranging as signage to large-format printing, also for significantly different customers, it is important to keep up to date with the latest technology. Freely agrees with this, explaining: “We have always tried to not only keep up with innovation and development of kit, but almost stretch ourselves out ahead as well; you can class us as an early adopter of technology.

“At the moment we are basically a Durst house. We have got two UV Durst printers, the P10 250 and the P10 160. The 250 is a direct-to-substrate printer which is able to print on many types of substrates and the 160 is a roll-to-roll printer, so both of those machines are working 16 hour shifts a day.

“In terms of finishing, we have got a Kongsberg cutting table which is trimming everything out that is made. We also have a traditional workshop which has people fabricating things like display stands, and false walls and partitions.”

As well investing in technology, it is crucial to invest in staff. “We have got intelligent people and right across the board, they are all critical to the way that we operate. Together we have a lot of built up knowledge and experience about what we do,” Freely explains.

Through this experience, the Octink team have built up a strong ability to adapt. Freely adds: “We work in very complicated environments that are construction-based sites and things do change. You cannot always foresee what is going to happen on any given day so the ability to adapt to a situation is something we have become very good at through experience.”


One challenge that Freely highlights as something all companies in this industry should look out for is being selective with diversifying into new areas. He says: “In my time in this industry, there has been so much innovation and there are so many good ideas. The challenge for us is not to get too carried away as you have to be careful when adding something new to what you do that you can afford it and utilise it in the best way. The challenge is developing a model which enables you to carry on making some money, and that requires a strategic focus. It would be easy to go to somewhere like FESPA and come back with all these ideas but you have to be selective.”



It is positive to hear that so many companies are seeing growth in the industry today, a state of affairs that was not quite the same a few decades ago, and for Octink this has been helped with its long-standing history in the sign world.

“We are fortunate that we are a company that has a great history since the 60s when it was set up as a traditional sign writing firm,” says Freely, adding: “Now is a great time for us, we are growing, and we are having a lot of success in attracting big brands.


“I think it’s still a growth market but we are being recognised by our own industry and by third parties. We were recognised by Print Week as ‘Out-of-Home Printer of the Year’ last year which was a fantastic achievement and we are also recognised for what we do in the community with our sustainability. There is a lot of good news around Octink, giving people a good feeling that we are a very credible option.”

Octink’s story of growth is inspiring and shows how companies willing to adapt over the years are companies that will see success. With plans to try to lead the market in what they do, always be different, and find new ways to do things, it looks like Octink will continue to grow and become a stronger force in the industry.

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