Taylor Bloxham first in world to receive prestigious colour quality certification

Print Solutions

The Taylor Bloxham Group is celebrating being the first print company in the world to receive certification for print colour quality at professional level from a UKAS accredited certification body. The BPIF Colour Quality Management Scheme certification for ISO12647: 2013 awarded to the company by Print and Media Certification means that the group has passed a rigorous product test to the ISO 12647:2013 standard and has met the ‘professional level’ requirements of the scheme. The certification has been given to the company after a multi-million pound programme of investment in premises and equipment. To achieve the qualification, which took several weeks of preparation and work, the Taylor Bloxham Group was required to demonstrate that it had reached and maintained the ISO 12647-2:2013 standard in this specific area of print quality. Preparations for the assessment process included an MOT style operation on the relevant machinery to ensure everything was in perfect condition for the tests required by the ISO standard.

‘The ISO12647: 2013 standard is well known in the print industry for being an extremely difficult qualification to achieve, demonstrated by the fact that we are amongst the first printing companies in Britain to receive it, and the very first company to receive it at the ‘professional level’ of the BPIF scheme,’ commented Chris Bolton, technical colour specialist at the Taylor Bloxham Group. Jamie Towers, general manager at Taylor Bloxham, added: ‘This certification is a vindication of the ambitious programme of investment that we have carried out over the last 12 months. We aim to lead the industry with state of the art machinery that enables faster print speeds, great colour definition and the highest print quality.’

Not content with being the first UK print company to achieve the certification, the Taylor Bloxham Group is now laying the groundwork for further ISO12647 certifications across the whole group. The company is also celebrating its 80th anniversary of trading this year and posted its highest ever turnover at the end of 2017. As CEO Robert Lockwood explains, the plan is to keep expanding and investing to stay at the forefront of print technology. ‘With clients demanding faster turnaround and sharper print quality, it is essential to embrace what new technology can offer. I believe that is the secret of our success,’ he commented. Jon Stack of Print & Media Certification Ltd, the UKAS accredited certification body which carried out the assessment, commented: ‘Becoming the very first company in the world to achieve the professional level is a really significant achievement. The certification is fully accredited by UKAS (the United Kingdom Accreditation Service), setting it apart from other certifications as UKAS accreditation ensures the certification is entirely independent and impartial, and also gives it full global recognition.’ The Taylor Bloxham Group includes the Taylor Bloxham print division, the FastAnt brand who specialise in fulfilment and e-commerce, Instore design and point of purchase division and Mailbox, which manages operations around direct mail.