Take books, for example. When the Kindle was first released in 2007, many declared it the end of the printed book. Yet here we are in 2025, and books are still a preferred choice for millions. There’s something about the tactile nature of a printed book—the feel of the pages, the weight in your hands—that digital can’t replace.

That said, times have changed, and so has our approach to print. We are more conscious of waste and more mindful of when and how we print. The industry has had to adapt, innovate, and refine itself to remain viable in an increasingly digital world. As businesses close, it’s easy to dwell on the losses, but we must also acknowledge the improvements and efficiencies that have emerged along the way.

For those of us still in print, the challenge is clear: we must think on our feet, embrace new opportunities, and not rest on past successes. This means looking for ways to branch out, refine processes, and offer smarter, more sustainable solutions.

If you’re searching for a reliable print company to meet your needs, get in touch—we’d be happy to help. But no matter where you go, you’ll find that the print industry is one of resilience. We’ve seen changes, closures, and challenges before, and through it all, we’ve had each other’s backs. The print community knows how to pick up the pieces and keep moving forward.

The post The Changing Landscape of Print: Reflections on Acorn Press and MPD Offset’s Closure appeared first on FAS Printing.

It is pretty sad that after 116!! years, they are closing down for good.

I had to pay my respects and visit them a few times in their last few weeks, because I won’t get another chance. They have been selling items off for 25% – 75%, gradually increasing each week until everything was sold, or nearly.

I have never seen the shop so busy, but that may well be the problem. Though they were profitable, the owner wanted to retire and no-one in the family wanted to take on the shop.

If you ever ventured down the back of the shop, you would find a printers, that recently rebranded to PrintCafe Uxbridge. This allowed them the autonomy of being their own independent print shop, but also being part of a bigger network, and the benefits that comes with it.

I for one will miss the Boville Wright art supplies, and the print shop. But as with so many shops in Uxbridge that are closing, we will just have to remember them fondly in our hearts and memories.

Here’s to you!

About Boville Wright

The below information is taken from their LinkedIn Profile. But as I am not sure how long it will be maintained, I thought I’d add it here:

We cover various areas of Art & Design Supplies, both in our stores at Uxbridge and Maidenhead (Bovilles Art Shops) and through our commercial delivery service (Bovilles Business Graphics): Art Materials Professional Design Materials Professional Drawing Office Materials Computer & Printer Supplies. CopyShop Services Bespoke Picture Framing. The business started in as Picture Framers and Artists Supplies in 1904 (Incorporated in 1996) evolving over more than a century into specialists on creative materials. The team at Bovilles are all creative in their own right and are eminently qualified to advise customers on the right product, gaining us a good reputation for being traditional and honest in our selling.

Website http://www.bovilles.co.uk

Industries: Arts and Crafts

Headquarters: UXBRIDGE, Middlesex

Founded: 1904 & Incorporated in 1996

Specialties:

• Art Materials
• Professional Design Supplies
• CopyShop Services
• Picture Framing

Locations

• Primary127-128, High Street UXBRIDGE, Middlesex UB8 1DJ, GB Get directions
• 124, High Street Maidenhead, Berkshire SL6 1PT, GB Get directions

https://www.linkedin.com/company/a.-boville-wright-ltd

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It is always sad when things change, sometimes it may work out for the better, but change is hard.

Drayton Press was one of those places that always stands out when you drive past. The slightly shabby building that seems entirely out of place in the area – The row of shops are all single-story, bungalow style buildings. Behind them is the canal and they are built pretty close to it. On the opposite side of the road, there were new flats built that overlook the canal, the close proximity to West Drayton station makes them more favorable to commuters going into Central London.

Drayton Press was one of the biggest printers in the area and they were usually the first place I sent people looking for T-shirt printing or emblazoned mugs. I guess I noticed them because I was  into printing myself.

A few years later (and a few years ago now), one of my closest friends worked for them, it put them back on the map for me. He’d often talk about how it was working there and what new things they had started to print, which printing process he had learned this week etc. It was interesting, it was the first time he had worked in a similar area as me and we enjoyed talking about the similarities and differences.

They also had a location in Uxbridge town centre, I had used them a few time to print t-shirts. This was the first location that my friend worked at before the location was sold or sub-let and they amalgamated all their business locations to the West Drayton location. the location was where most of the printing took place, with the Uxbridge location being mainly customer facing. When it closed, my friend moved to the West Drayton shop and started learning more about the  print process.

Talking to my friend I found out that they had moved to Reading after the Pro Logis development wanted to buy up the land on the canal-side. They had apparently been turning down offers for a while but must have been made a decent offer that allowed them to move and get a nice new location.

I wish them the best of luck in their new location and hope they continue to grow. 🙂

The post Drayton Press – The West Drayton Printing Company Moves appeared first on FAS Printing.

At FAS we pride ourselves on being a helpful, reliable, budget-friendly and high quality. But there’s more to picking your printing companies or suppliers for your next project.

Tips for the companies

You learn a lot as a customer, whether you take it onboard or not. Whenever I talk to small businesses as part of my consultation work we discuss how their customers perceive them. You might think it’s simple and straightforward, but you would be surprised how often this is what catches us out the most. Sometimes people want to hear about ROI and market share – but more often people want to be spoken to in a friendly informative way that doesn’t talk down. Dry business speak will only get you so far, and 90% of your customers won’t care about it.

The problem is that you KNOW what your business does so you don’t often have to explain it to yourself. You need to imagine that you have never seen your company before. Do you make the right statement? Do you promote the most important and interesting parts of your business to your potential customers?

Being a customer can be an important learning experience if you think about it. Think about why you shop somewhere and why you don’t shop somewhere else. What you want a company to tell you about their products before you buy and what is less important. Use that information and build upon it. When I started looking into print, I realised that though I may now the sizes of A4, A2, DL etc., many customers wouldn’t. So when I set up the flyer printing section, I decided that a graphic representation of the relative size of flyers  would be helpful to some people. Not all people, but some. And why not try to make it easy for as many people as we can?

Be Helpful

For printing companies and suppliers, it’s important to be helpful and customer service is vital. But this includes telling a customer when their demands are slightly outside your expertise or ability. When a customer asks for something to be printed by tomorrow, it is definitely better to admit that you might not be able to hit the target than say you can and miss it. Yes, you might lose the sale. But they might come back again. If you let them down, then they may not.

Featured Products

Business Cards

Folded Leaflets

Flyers & Leaflets

Postcards

Posters

Roller Banners

Labels & Stickers

Vinyl Banners

Outdoor Signs

Business Cards

Folded Leaflets

Posters

Flyers & Leaflets

Postcards

Roller Banners

Labels & Stickers

Vinyl Banners

The post Printing Companies and how to pick one appeared first on FAS Printing.

What we do

• Business cards
• Flyers
• Postcards
• Christmas cards, birthday cards, wedding invites, occasion cards etc
• Booklets
• Posters
• Vinyl Banners and Pop-up banners
• Canvas prints

Time to Focus on Print

FAS Media is great, really! But we started noticing that people would come to us, not just for design, but also when they had something they needed to be printed. They would come to us when they needed personal projects printed, such as family photos printed on canvases, or when they needed posters printed that were already designed. That’s great! We love the fact that we are producing high-quality printed materials at a price that often beats in-house print shops, and that we are trusted by them time and time again to be a partner as they grow their business. But the printing had started to tie up the phones and emails and was starting to get in the way of our other customers. So we decided to start FAS Print. FAS Print will be the main hub for all printing that we do going forward. We hope to be able to include many user-friendly features for when you just need something printed, but also keep our designers on standby when you need the helping hand of skilled creative people to get those business cards you’ve been dreaming about into reality.

This article was written by
Luke Bryant

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