Everyone at Technique would like to wish you all a very successful and prosperous New Year.

2011 saw Technique make many changes, we changed our identity, made investments in equipment with a brand new Heidelberg XL75 5 colour and an Horizon Stitchliner and we have seen new faces arrive in many departments as we have experienced 30% growth in sales. But some would think this year we would consolidate and sit back after such a busy year but they would be wrong! To stand still is to go backwards so this year we are planning on further growth and more investments to be made throughout the business that will keep us ahead of our competitors in both quality and service.

We believe it is all about having a positive attitude and with our total commitment to achieving success this year we look forward to a very exciting 2012 and hope that you too have a very prosperous New Year.

Movember is here again and for those of you that have not heard of this activity, Movember is the month when men throughout the UK and all around the world will be growing facial hair on their upper lip only (no goatees or beards allowed!) to raise vital funds for men’s health issues, in particular prostate and testicular cancer.

This year 5 of the Technique Team: Karl, Mark, Alan, Simon & Jon have formed the Technique Tache Team to raise money for these important charities and have set themselves a team target to hopefully raise £500. Please click here if you would like to donate to the team.

We will be publishing pictures throughout the month of how we are doing and you can also follow us at the above link. We thank you for your support.

Technique Print Group are offering the chance for the first 30 of the top businesses in the local area to join us in giving away FREE calendars to their nominated charity or local community group to help them raise vital funds to benefit their cause.

We have designed and are printing a calendar for 2012 and each participating business that joins us will receive 50 FREE calendars printed with their company details for them to give away. Each business will be asked to nominate a local charity or community group and we will then print a further 50 calendars for FREE for them with their details which they will be able to sell to raise funds for themselves.

For more information please follow this link

 We’re constantly striving to ensure we bring our customers the very best in everything we do – quality, value for money and service. We are delighted to announce that we have  achieved ISO 9001 certification. This is the internationally recognised Quality Management Standard, demonstrating our commitment to quality and efficiency.

We have also achieved ISO 14001 – the internationally-recognised certificate for evaluating how well we manage our environmental responsibilities so demonstrating to our customers that we manage our environmental duties in a responsible manner.

Further to the installation in March of a brand new Heidelberg XL75 5 colour press, and as part of our 2011 million pound investment programme, we are pleased to announce the second phase has been completed with the purchase of a brand new Horizon StitchLiner 5500.

The StitchLiner will be installed on July 4th which will be Independance Day for Technique as we will no longer be relying on the services of trade finishing companies for our stitching work although there will always be print projects which require specialist finishing operations where these valuable suppliers will still be used.

With automated quick set up times, resulting in both waste and energy savings we are able to price even more competitively for short, medium and long run booklets.

The new addition will join a Stahl folding machine and Polar guillotine in the bindery.

As part of our one million pound investment for 2011 our new Heidelberg XL75 5 colour press has arrived.

The decision to replace our existing Heidelberg Speedmaster was taken in the final quarter of last year due to the need for improved quality, greater efficiency and extra capacity to undertake the growth that we have set for 2011. We have always bought Heidelberg presses and after searching the market the XL75 is undoubtedly the best B2 press in the market place and comes with a coating unit and extended drier which will give our customers extremely quick turnaround times when required.

The press comes with a colour control system for effective quality assurance. The simultaneous colour control of all printing units is based on spectrophotometrically calculated values ensuring the press inks up much more quickly and less waste is produced during make-ready.

We now print on board up to 800 micron and with a transfer system through the press on a cushion of air without the need for transfer jackets we can now guarantee no marking running at speeds up to 15000 sheets per hour. How many printer’s can make that statement?

This is the first press of this kind to be installed in Oxfordshire and we are really excited as to the quality of work that we can now produce. We will be constantly looking for you, our customers to push us as far as you can so that we will be able to prove our capabilities to you.

In January 2011 Wheeler & Porter merged their business in to part of the Technique Print Group.

Tim Porter, who was solely running the Banbury design company which employed three staff, was looking to secure the future of his business and knowing the directors at Technique Print Group for a long time the merger suited both parties as the studio at Technique Print Group was in need of some capacity in both graphic and web design. Along with Tim we are glad to add Adam Blakemore and Ross Paterson to the team of fully experienced designers.

We have been delighted to welcome some new clients on board that now have the benefit of many more services available to them in house. Supplying both design and print has enabled them to streamline their purchasing and administration using one supplier for all of their graphic solutions.

Technique Studios have undergone a 1 million pound investment program, and have rebranded to become Technique Print Group.

Having expanded to provide the complete solution in the graphics industry it was time to change the name and look to reflect what we are now about. With this large investment in new print technology this year and with a targeted 40% growth for the next financial year it was time to be recognised as one of the leading colour and commercial print companies in Oxfordshire.

As for the new logo we have had many comments on what people think it is. We would welcome your views on this and there is a free gift for anyone correctly identifying it. Comments please… but keep them clean!