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Integrity is the biggest small printer you will ever see. From the ground, its site seems vast and sprawling. From the air, it's even bigger. It turns over in excess of £55m a year and employs 360 staff, yet despite this it retains all the characteristics and charm of a family business. "I'm the dad," managing director Mark Cornford says with a grin. The metaphor applies in more ways than one. For starters, Integrity, which was until a few months ago the business forms printing arm of Communisis, is his baby.

The MBO that finally went through this summer has been in a nascent state for several years and it was only Cornford’s perseverance that made it a possibility. Now, like any new father, he’s rightly proud of his offspring. The same goes for his staff – “the best in the business” – whom he looks upon as part of the family. Each merits a nod, a wave, a chat and no doubt, on occasion, a ticking off. Whatever it takes to keep all 360 of them pulling together, which is something they will need to do to survive the coming years, because, in spite of the firm’s size, its core market is in decline.

Shared philosophy
Cornford, whose background lies in the automotive engineering industry, joined Communisis Bath, or Bath Business Forms, as Integrity was then known, in 1999 and immediately set about improving processes through his knowledge of lean manufacturing. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, he picks up on the tiniest details and recognises where and how things could be done better.

His philosophy matches that of England’s Rugby World Cup winning coach Sir Clive Woodward, who advocated targeting 100 areas where performance can be made just 1% better. Touring the site, it is evident that his staff have bought into this shared philosophy. “This is my Millennium Stadium,” he says. “I may never play at the real one, but we all work as a team and at the end of the day I want us all to go home knowing we did the best that we could and then to come back the next day and try to do even better.”

Cornford’s enthusiasm is infectious, but the question remains: if Communisis was worried about the declining revenues in the business forms sector, what made an MBO viable? “The irony is that we were seen as the best at what we do, but because what we do is mainly commodity printing, Communisis wanted to sell us,” explains Cornford. “However, it’s our independence that’s actually been the key to unlocking the marketplace and securing the future of the business.” Communisis presumably acquired Bath Business Forms because of its dominance, however, being part of Communisis in some regards actually held the company back. “The majority of the marketplace wasn’t open to us fully, because [much of] the marketplace competes directly with Communisis,” he says. “So the business proposition wasn’t being optimised.”

Today, with the market duly “unlocked” and Cornford helming the ship, Integrity can boast £5m of new business won during the past six weeks alone. However, with the industry likely to get worse before it gets better and, by Cornford’s own admission, facing some “stormy water”, there are still some very real risks ahead.

Last man standing
With the threat from transpromo eating away at the business forms market, being the last man standing can only hold so much comfort. Ultimately, even that last man has to fall. However, Cornford doesn’t seem worried.

“If the business was just statements and it wasn’t growing and we didn’t have an eye on the future, then yes, we would wither and die. But we’re not dependent on any one product stream,” he says. “We will continue to develop and grow our niche products over 18 months and we will also look at acquisitions.” These acquisitions are likely to provide the company with a broader product offering, helping to further reduce its exposure to risk. In the meantime, Cornford doesn’t think the threat from transpromo will be realised in the immediate future. “There are problems with transpromo with cost, quality and capability,” he says. “The technology is there but it won’t come tomorrow and it won’t be for everyone.”

Whatever the future may hold, it’s a certainty that Cornford and his staff will tackle it as a team. The atmosphere of mutual respect around the plant is tangible and, perhaps unsurprisingly considering the number of sporting metaphors with which our conversation is littered, the ambitions of the managing director are vocalised in terms of competition rather than pounds and pence. “I want to go to my grave being proud of what I did. I want everyone to feel respected and to know that they respected me. I want to be able to look back and say, ‘you know what, we were awesome’.”

INTEGRITY FACTFILE
Based Midsomer Norton
Turnover £55m
Staff 360
Site 27,000m2
Accreditations APACS 9507, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 18001, ISO 27001, ISO 12647