Signature Gifts has partnered with Laybird to offer personalised versions of some of its new adult books

Increasing demand for personalised publications led Signature gifts to invest in the UK’s first Canon Océ VarioPrint i300 cut sheet inkjet printer.

Wigtown, the location of Signature Gift’s new 1300 sqm factory, is as Scotland’s national book town, a very appropriate location. An additional bookish twist is that in Harry Potter, Wigtown Wanderers is a Quidditch team. The location for the UK’s first Canon Océ VarioPrint i300 cut sheet inkjet press is down to the fact that it is the home to sister enterprise Historic Newspapers. 

Managing director Kevin Spindle, who comes from a background in sales and marketing for blue chips, founded the business in 2003. Its origins were as an online gift retailer, including historic newspapers, hence the relationship with Historic Newspapers, which owns largest archive of old newspapers in the world. The business became involved in printing with a licence to reproduce match reports from old newspapers. Unable to find a supplier to meet its needs, it installed its first digital printer 2004. 

Every time is personal

In 2006 the firm was an early adopter of EFI Direct Smile, to produce personalised products. It signed a licensing arrangement with the Daily Mirror to offer a range of personalised products including posters, calendars and greetings cards. Over time the firm has come to specialise in books and in 2012 it started to produce children’s books.

‘The other products were commoditised whereas books are harder to do,’ says Mr Spindle. ‘Ninety percent of our work is for one-offs and we are doing hundreds of thousands of personalised books per year.’

In addition to developing its own products it has also partnered with publishers to offer personalised versions of their products; including DC Thomson, Penguin and Ladybird. The deal with Ladybird includes the new Adult Ladybird books ‘The Wife’, ‘The Husband’ and ‘The Hangover’, which can be personalised with the recipient’s name.

‘These are gifts that happen to be books, they are not a self-purchase’ says Mr Spindle.

Boxing clever

Other examples include personalised sports books, which can sell for £60 a piece and sell in the ‘tens of thousands’. A commemorative book on Muhammad Ali was available within a week of the boxer’s passing. Time to market is crucial, with some partners requiring a 48-hour turnaround. This can be a challenge, with ensuring personalisation is correct can take longer than physical production.

The i300 will go a long way to alleviating production challenges. At 300 A4ppm it eats up work, replacing four ImagePress colour and two 6250 mono toner-based machines, although one of each remain for back up. Inkjet printing removes the ‘digital wave’ caused by the heat of fusing, eliminating the need for jobs to stand for up to a day before binding. It needed cut sheet because of the wide range of materials, weights and sizes and the unpredictable work mix. Inkjet also matches litho without the sheen of toner on matte papers.

A happy ending

Because gifting is seasonal, the firm is looking at other book markets for the rest of the year. Its publishing partnerships are proving useful as is its coming to short run production from producing one offs. According to Mr Spindler, ‘it is not the reason that we bought the i300 but we can be competitive for volumes up to a couple of thousand.’

Books were not part of the story at the beginning of Signature Gifts’ tale but since showing up in the middle, they have become an integral part of the business and have developed into key characters as the firm embarks on its next chapter.