Nathan Swinson-Bullough, managing director of Imageco
A shift is happening
Introduce Imageco and the services it offers
Imageco was formed in 2000 by directors Brian Plows and Stephen Johnson, originally in Kirkstall, Leeds and was formed to service retail graphics, display, and exhibitions. Steve and Brian came together to form Imageco after formerly being Display Factory and Display Colour. Simon Harrison was one of the original staff and has run the show for many years. I joined in 2003 and was originally a Mac operator but moved more into print and general graphic production. Back then, we were servicing the likes of clothing brands such as Fat Face, New Look, and Peacocks. It was a great company then. I was amazed at how laid back it was, but we knew we had to get stuff done, so we would work all hours. It was manic but good fun and the directors looked after us for our efforts.
How has Imageco evolved over the past 22 years?
As time moved on, Imageco invested in more print kit and I moved into print working on a HP Scitex, a Durst Lambda, and a Zund cutter. I got to know and understand a lot about print and applications mainly by being thrown in at the deep end. Simon was client facing but had a background of mounting and finishing so he knew that side well.
The Leeds-based company works with many environmental substrates such as Antalis’ Xanita board
We also had Ed who was a technical whizz, now our operations manager. He joined at the age of 15. I think he was 16 when I joined but knew all the print machines and was always on hand to fix them. Nicola, who is now a key account handler and the efficient cog of the company, joined first on reception then moved into production. Not to forget Terry who’s now our facilities manager; Gabba the legend of a warehouse guy; Jamie in studio; James one of our business development managers; Sugar the man that never ages in finishing; and Rob also in finishing who can cut anything out with a scalpel – who needs a Zund eh?
This is the thing about Imageco we have good staff retention and we all get on really well. We are friends too and spend more time together than we do with our families. Sad but made easier with lovely people.
What factors have influenced the direction of the company’s journey so far?
As time moved on we moved premises to where we are now at the other side of Leeds. Kit changed, contracts changed, and time moved on. The collapse of Peacocks and a several-million-pound-contract altered the path of Imageco. Redundancies had to be made and things scaled back as a result. It was sad times but we just got on with stuff. Steve and Brian were now approaching retirement age, I was running the shop floor and Simon was running what we call production (sales basically). In 2013 things looked a bit rocky, some key shareholders left and things became difficult. We recruited to cover those that left and still battled on.
I was preparing to throw myself into full-time wedding photography as I had started to get work and my photography hobby was something I loved. Then one morning the directors called myself and Simon into the office and told us they were retiring and that they were handing Imageco over to us. Safe to say I was shocked yet delighted and scared at the same time. I knew we could make it work. It took several years for the buyout to complete but in 2015 it was complete. Steve and Brian stepped aside and the new Imageco was born.
Our first port of call was to create a new management team and give the place some structure that it had lacked. I stepped back from the shop floor and found myself in an office; it all felt weird. We had to look at big investment as our kit was ageing and in need of repair. We discovered machine funding from the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and added a new VUTEk, Zund, and a HP latex 360. We had never had a dedicated design department either but I wanted us to add creativity to our services. I was handed a CV and portfolio of a young recent graduate Becca Kelly who had a Masters in Illustration and Graphics and her portfolio was lovely. We hired her but I couldn’t promise the work. Seven years later she is studio manageress and senior creative designer.
When did sustainability become a key focus for Imageco?
The company was starting to take its modern day shape. Sustainability at this point didn’t cross my mind as we were too busy building the company and trying to survive. Then one day a few years into running the company I was sat watching David Attenborough Blue Planet 2 – the episode that showed all the ocean plastic – and I was horrified to see the images of the plastic in the sea. As much as I loved the outdoors and was aware of climate change, it didn’t even occur to me that we were part of the problem, I was embarrassed and ashamed. I instantly knew we had to do something to make a change in how we worked.
I didn’t really know where to start but I saw materials as a big part of it so I began looking at more sustainable alternatives to what we used such as foam PVC, PVC banner etc. I soon found there were quite a few products out there and I spent the next year testing and trialling. Some were no good, some were OK. I started to use LinkedIn to get my message out there and suppliers came to me with new products. Antalis and CMYUK all had interesting stuff including PVC alternatives and paper-based alternatives to foam PVC.
My next job was to start educating clients on how they could switch products and become more sustainable. HP was also developing the next phase of Latex, and although I didn’t see it primarily as a sustainable printer, I soon realised that this ink technology was the way forward in sustainable print and could serve our interior decor needs as well as day-to-day work. We put a HP Latex 570 in, then added a second not long after.
There is much room for improvement in all areas and that’s what is fuelling growth. Our customers are now demanding sustainable processes and that standards are met. Sustainability will soon become the norm”
At this point we had a nice selection of alternative print media, but it was just an alternative. In 2019 I made the change of several of our core products to that of CMYUK – all of which were made from recycled yarn. This would now be as standard and we were also made Gold partners with Xanita via Antalis as we were starting to shift some of our clients into using Xanita as an alternative to other products. These would now form our main product range. We had begun to work with a marketing agency, Halston Marketing who grasped what we were about, gave us a rebrand and a new website and started to deliver the sustainable message across our social platform.
Imageco won three awards at the 2021 UK Graphic Awards including The Green Award
People were beginning to listen and as sustainability became more apparent in our industry we began to get more enquiries. Design agencies would come to us for a sustainable alternative way to create their projects. I became heavily involved in this, helping specify projects and looking at new ways of producing concepts for retail that were less damaging to the environment. We had some nice work under our belt and as a company we were doing OK. I had the time to research further and look at what was coming. All was going well then up popped Covid.
Did Covid-19 affect Imageco’s daily sustainable efforts?
At the start of 2020 I was introduced to Planet U energy by our head of marketing Georgia Halston. Planet U specialises in voltage optimisation and I had no idea what this was until they sat me down and spoke about it. Essentially, it is a technology that reduces waste electricity and cuts down on power consumption therefore saving C02. We agreed to install it and the following month lockdown hit. We didn’t see that coming. Our work vanished so we started making masks for the NHS and care homes. With more time on our hands I had more time to think.
Planet U spoke to me about getting solar installed, so I was like ‘wow, if you can get us running on solar then do it’. A year later we had the panels installed and we were spending money anticipating a healthy bounce back after Covid. At this time we didn’t know when this would be so it was a risky strategy. I was confident this would work out. It was also time for a new car so I planned on cutting my exhaust emissions and going all electric. We got electric charger points and I haven’t looked back since.
At this time we still had our Durst Lambda and although it formed the foundations of Imageco and will always be the best photographic printer of its time, it did use a lot of energy in its process. Some of the chemicals used weren’t great either. We used it less and less but had to keep it operational to service a gaming contract. The processor had to be continuously heated so the chemistry remained stable. I knew something must be on the horizon to replace it and our two HP Latex 570s were producing work close to it on backlit film so I knew that any development in the Latex technology may be the answer. Darren at Perfect Colours and Jane Rixon at HP got in touch with me to tell me about the new HP Latex 800 W that was due for release. We had an online demo and I could tell that it would be the answer despite not seeing the print quality up close. I requested samples on our files and once I’d received these, I pretty much ordered one there and then. It had everything we needed from a production point of view and its sustainable credentials were perfect to accelerate our journey.
Swinson-Bullough sees HP Latex technology as “the way forward in sustainable print”
We added a second not long after the first went in. By now we were seeing some normal work return and Covid was kind of under control.
What motivated Imageco to achieve environmental accreditations such as ISO 14001?
We continued our marketing message of sustainability and continued to develop our goals. I was all too aware that greenwashing was commonplace in the industry, and we can pretty much say what we wanted on social media, so I wanted to get ISO 14001 environmental accreditation under our belt to prove we were doing as we said. I joined a networking group on LinkedIn and noticed a woman called Sandy who dealt with ISO standards so I dropped her a message and asked if she could help. 12 months later we had our ISO certification. Sandy helped streamline our operations, manage waste, and educate staff. Our facilities manager Terry worked alongside her putting things in place. Staff education was very important to me and it still is. I realised it’s all very well us doing all this but they need to know why. Waste was always a big issue but we had a very conscious waste management company then known as Prism, now called Recomomy.
They helped us manage our waste to be recycled, some of which has to be waste to energy but none of which is landfill. Our shop floor staff were educated more and we had a better infrastructure ensuring the correct waste goes where it wants. By this time, I was doing numerous interviews and talks and had been invited on the board of FESPA to help with sustainability. I was also introduced to Dominic Harris of CarbonQuota by Dan Tyler at Vism. We held a few webinars together and I started to learn a lot about carbon emissions not just from our factory but also from the supply chain and material production.
Dominic told me things that I hadn’t had a clue about. They ran a comparison of jobs, from a standard vinyl wall covering to our eco wall canvas made from recycled plastic bottles and it revealed 80% less carbon than the vinyl way. I was amazed so I listened to more of Dominic’s talks and began to understand in depth the carbon output of our processes. Dominic called me and said 'let’s do a full carbon report on Imageco', so I said 'let’s do it'. We have just had this completed and we can see where we are and where we need to be. As a result, we have now undergone a full carbon offsetting scheme and been certified carbon neutral to the European standard PAS2060. I am delighted with this, however I know we need to do more still.
In Sept 2021 we hired two new members of staff, Tim Houghton and Dean Sharpe. We hired them at the same time and both are experts in the field of cardboard engineering – Tim from a sales perspective and Dean is a wizard at cardboard engineering. We are now producing work in Xanita and card that eradicate the use of plastic – things I never thought possible. We have a tree planting scheme in place locally with Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust but this doesn’t count towards our offsetting, we just do it to care and try to give something back locally. So I guess the moral of my story is we try to do the best we can for the environment whilst doing what we are good at.
Have developments in technology made it easier to provide more green initiatives and practices?
I believe we are on the verge of a huge transformation. The industry has woken up to the problems faced and everyone needs to adopt. I am a big believer in innovation to fuel change and it will happen. Companies like HP are leading the way with print technology and their ethics, as are swissQprint from a machine perspective. Pongs is doing some amazing stuff with fabric production and Antalis’ Xanita and honeycomb producer Dufaylite, and others are providing great fibre-based media that can replace card. Drytac is making good progress in the media market as are others.
I believe we are on the verge of a huge transformation. The industry has woken up to the problems faced and everyone needs to adopt. I am a big believer in innovation to fuel change and it will happen”
I think in five years the print landscape will change further and now sustainability is on the agenda as much as print speed and quality. There are so many areas to address though, with packaging being a big factor as well as logistics. We use a 30% recycled bubblewrap and paper-based wrap but I want the bubble out. I still see too many parcels wrapped in bubblewrap that I think can be wrapped in paper. We have started working with clients now as a result of our work who are demanding sustainability. Everyone can look to solar installations or renewable energy sources and there are so many changes that can be made, yet the industry needs to, and will, improve.
What would you say is currently the biggest threat to this industry?
Another pandemic. The pandemic came about because we mess with nature, our ecosystems are dying, we are losing the balance of biodiversity, the planet is warming, and we are moving closer with nature due to habitation loss. The closer we get to nature the closer we get to disease we can’t control such as Covid-19. The whole point of sustainability is to look after our planet and is the reason that we all need to take it seriously. It’s not just a buzz word or trend, bad things are happening.
Everyone has a part to play in this, not just the government, not just the big brands or company directors but each person on the planet. Education is key as I have already said and caring about our planet should be a priority. No one at all is perfect, me included, I fly too much. The print industry can survive if the right changes are met and innovation will shape this. Legislation will play a big part in the coming years for the big guns, but I think the smaller entities such as us at Imageco need to be watched too. The next time the health and safety officer pops in for a visit, I’d like to see the environmental officer too.
Do you have anything else to add?
I think the biggest trend is the wake up call. Sustainability is really at the forefront of a lot of print-service-providers and suppliers alike now, which is good to see. Not everyone is on it, but a lot are. I’m seeing solar installs, machine investment, material changes, and design developments.
I recently spoke at a FESPA event and thought to myself, I sit here thinking I’m saving the planet, but I’m part of the problem. That may be harsh on myself but thinking like this gives me continuous drive. Attitude and awareness of the problems we face and why we face them is key.
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