When You Need an Extra Pair of Hands

Most print businesses are very good at what they do, but no one can do everything.

A litho printer (for non-print readers, that’s using presses with metal plates and ink rollers, well suited to high-volume runs) might land a short, urgent digital job that doesn’t suit that process.

A small format printer might have a client who suddenly needs a large banner or an exhibition stand.

A busy week might mean more work than the floor can physically get through, or a key piece of equipment might be out of action.

We’ve worked with printers, print management companies and agencies in this position for many years, stepping in  whenever a client needs a helping hand. 

Who We Work With

Our trade clients fall into three main groups, each with slightly differing needs.

Printers

Whether you specialise in litho and need help with digital jobs, only run small format kit and need large format covered, or have the print capability but not the finishing equipment, we can fill the gap. Some clients send us overflow work during busy periods. Others use us regularly for specific formats. A few get in touch when a machine goes down and they need to keep production moving.

We also work with print businesses based outside the UK who need a UK order produced and managed locally rather than shipped from abroad. More on that a little later!

Print Management Companies

We work with several print management businesses – sometimes called ‘print brokers’ – who place orders on behalf of their own clients. When an online order doesn’t arrive in time, or a deadline falls outside what a standard supplier can manage, that becomes a real problem for the people who placed the order. We’ve helped a number of print management companies in exactly that position, printing jobs at short notice and to spec.

Agencies

Design and marketing agencies placing print orders for clients need a print partner who can turn work around quickly, produce it well and stay out of sight. That’s how we work. We’re used to operating under NDAs, and your client relationships remain entirely your own.

How We Fit into Your Process

There’s no single way trade printing works with us, and we don’t try to make clients fit one model.

Some supply their own materials or hardware and just need us to print.

Others want the full service: design, print, finishing and delivery.

Some come to us for one job.

Others build us into how they work day-to-day.

We’re also used to working discreetly. Orders placed under NDA, plain or client-supplied packaging, your delivery notes and your courier accounts – we can work within whatever set-up you already have.

For printing businesses with their own online ordering systems, we can take orders directly, produce and finish them, then ship under your branding, so the work looks exactly as if it came from you.

What We Can Produce

Having large and small format printing alongside a broad range of finishing equipment under one roof means most jobs can come to us rather than being split across several suppliers.

Small format:

•  business cards

•  leaflets and flyers

•  direct mail

•  brochures and booklets

•  prospectuses

•  workbooks

•  training manuals and instruction guides

For this kind of printing, we operate a “no minimum order quantity policy”, which suits short runs and last-minute jobs, but we’re equally set up for higher-volume production where cost matters more than speed.

Trade printing has been part of what we do since iQ Digital House was founded in 2005 – some of our very first clients were print management companies, and several of them are still with us today.

Large format:

•  posters

•  banners

•  wall and window graphics

•  floor graphics

•  roller banners

•  exhibition stands

•  vehicle graphics

•  a wide range of signage

•  direct to substrate printing

We run HP Latex and HP DesignJet printers for posters, banners and vinyl graphics. Our flatbed printer prints direct to substrate – onto board rather than printed and mounted – and our cutting table produces cut-to-shape work, both well suited to retail, point of sale and custom applications.

Output goes up to 2.5 metres wide.

Exhibition work covers a particularly wide range of formats, from pop-up and modular stands to fabric displays, lightboxes and sustainable displays printed onto Xanita board, a durable and eco-friendly cardboard alternative.

These jobs often come with tight turnaround requirements and complex logistics, and a number of our trade clients also make use of our ability to store and re-despatch exhibition kit between events.

Finishing is another service which sets us apart, because not every print business has a perfect binder – a machine that glues pages into a flat spine, commonly used for brochures and manuals – or a laminator in-house.

Finishing:

•  spiral binding (spiral wire coil)

•  wiro / Wire-O binding (twin-loop wire)

•  perfect binding

•  booklet finishing

•  round cornering

•  punched / drilled / perforated / stapled

•  lamination in a range of finishes (gloss, matt, crystal, wipe-clean and anti-graffiti)

•  collating

•  cutting (guillotine or trimming work to reduce sheets to their final size)

•  hand-finishing, fulfilment, assembly and packing

A job can come to us incomplete and go back to your client finished.

Sustainability is increasingly part of the brief for end-clients, and we can advise on greener material options and carbon balanced paper – speak to us about your project to find out what’s available.

More Than Just Print

We also offer storage and distribution from our Aldershot base, with over 200m² of space, an online stock management portal and a pick-and-pack despatch service. It’s well suited to print management companies and agencies running ongoing client programmes or with limited space who’d rather not hold all the stock themselves.

For Local Print Businesses

For printers and agencies based nearby, the relationship often looks a little different. Many of our clients like to come in, look at materials or talk through a project before it goes to print, and some collect finished orders to deliver to their clients themselves. We’re always happy to work that way.

International Print Businesses

For print businesses based outside the UK, managing UK orders from abroad can create unnecessary delays and complications. Having a production partner on the ground means orders can be produced locally, finished and despatched within the UK, without the lead times, shipping costs or logistical headaches that come with fulfilling from overseas.

We work with a number of international print businesses in this way, handling their UK orders from production through to delivery. As with the rest of our trade work, we operate discreetly – despatching under your branding, on your accounts and with your paperwork, so the end customer’s experience remains entirely your own.

Get in Touch

If you’re a printer, print management company or agency looking for a reliable trade partner, we’d welcome a conversation.

Whether you have a specific job in mind, need someone to cover a gap, or want to understand what we can handle before that moment when you need us, tell us what you’re working on and we’ll take it from there.