Picture a company that’s spent over 40 years printing and binding books in a picturesque Cornish harbour town, and you could be excused for thinking ‘traditional’ or even ‘quaint’.
TJ International is anything but. With world-leading digital equipment and ambitious plans for continued global growth, this highly innovative, Padstow-based business has its eyes firmly set on the future.
A textbook approach to business growth
Banish any thoughts of dusty premises and inky printing presses. Today’s book manufacturing industry is incredibly progressive and fast-moving, where huge investments in digital technology yield the fine advantages in cost, flexibility and production time that make the difference between obsolescence and market domination.
Embracing this ferocious, unrelenting change is the reason TJ International has thrived consistently, since moving to Padstow from South London in the early 1970s. The company has grown from just six staff in 1973, to over 125 – and has still greater plans ahead.
As chief executive Angus Clark explains, investing in the latest printing equipment, while encouraging experienced staff to value quality, gives TJ International the competitive edge to win major contracts, and the customer loyalty to retain them.
“Our new ‘On Demand’ press is the first of its kind in the UK,” he says. “We can now print individual copies of any title for retailers and the public, so a book need never go out of print again.
“Technical capabilities like that, through the whole life cycle of a book, keep new orders coming in. But the reason we keep the business hasn’t changed in 40 years: high quality books and journals, delivered on time and to clients’ exact specifications, with a first class service.”
“That’s a good recipe for growth, and we’re very ambitious. In 2014 we expect to turn over around £13 million, and we’re aiming for £15 million within three years.”
Employment Law: an award-winning ethos
As any business grows in size, complexity and head count, line managers take a growing share of responsibility – not just for quality and productivity, but also for ensuring a positive working culture, and avoiding potential legal problems among their teams.
Hand-in-hand with technology, TJ International invests considerable time, resources and effort in nurturing a skilled, settled workforce. It’s a strategy that has paid dividends, and the company is the only three-time winner of the Business Improvement Through People category at the Cornwall Business Awards.
For some time, TJ International has supported this ethos by creating tailored, management training with Stephens Scown’s head of employment law, Terry Falcao.
Angus says: “Through Terry, we’ve run a number of programmes to help our line managers do things better, and understand possible pitfalls in areas like harassment, confrontation and ‘difficult’ staff.
“Stephens Scown’s training has gone down really well, because the advice is so realistic; people can relate it closely to what they do.”
IP MOT: growing “professionally and properly” Although many don’t realise it, Intellectual Property is often the single most valuable asset a business owns. TJ International quickly recognised its growth plans might be undermined unless it could protect its rights, and avoid accidentally breaking IP rules.
With specialist help from Intellectual Property specialist Tom Moore, the company joined over 100 others in undertaking Stephens Scown’s IP MOT accreditation process. Completing the tests ensured TJ International could continue its growth into the future, at home and overseas, without worrying about legal issues with its website, trade mark rights, e-commerce contracts or data protection compliance.
“We work across three continents, so we have to protect our brand as best we can,” says Angus. “Stephens Scown have given us the advice we need to do things professionally and properly.”
TJ International’s own head of legal services, Lauren Topper agrees: “Because our brand is growing so quickly, it was important to ensure we’re keeping up with the law – a potential minefield in this digital age – and also keeping our trading identity safe and secure.
“Tom from Stephens Scown understood our business very quickly. From the word ‘go’ it was obvious he’d done his homework, and we had sensible, commercial guidance on what to do next. It was very impressive.”