Phew, 2007...what a year! We haven’t had such a busy and exciting time since we started 1st byte in 1997!

We began with buying the South London based digital printers Raging Thunder - we weren't looking for acquisitions, but when we discovered their sophisticated e-procurement system Press4Print we thought it was so good we bought the company! But how to bring Raging Thunder into our building in Bakers Yard? At 1st Byte space was tight, so we bought our neighbouring building to gain almost 3,000 sq foot. We are also expanding 1st Byte in order to keep up with demand - this year to date we have 50% more work than last year due both to new clients and even more pleasingly to increased business from our existing clients. I think that Digital Print is now being seen as the 'norm' rather than just a niche service...the similarity in the changeover in Photography from film to Digital is striking. The ease and speed of Digital along with continual quality improvements and reduction in prices means that Litho will eventually become the niche service. I’m glad we resisted the temptation of moving into Litho!

We are expanding the finishing department so no work need ever be outsourced. Historically this has proved a bit of a bottleneck so as well as new finishing staff we will be investing in new equipment – in fact the 1st floor in both buildings will be devoted purely to finishing with two new Polar guillotines, a new automated wirobinding system, more folding equipment and a short run hard back binding line. A great set up that is sure to make production at 1st Byte even more streamlined and reliable.

On the Pressroom floor we have already installed the 3rd HP/Indigo5000 with 7 colour capability which will be joined, this autumn, with a fourth Indigo from Raging Thunder, making us the largest HP colour facility for general short run print in the UK. Although being the biggest has never been our goal - our constant aim to be the best means demand is growing and we must increase capacity to keep ahead of the demand.

Our latest Client Survey made interesting reading - we are proud to see our customers are happy, particularly with the high quality and quick turnaround we can provide. There are also, of course, some areas where we can improve and we will be taking all comments into account and making changes to ensure we provide the best possible customer experience every time.

I hope you enjoy catching up with all our news.