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1/10/05Jade 1973 - 2006

Looking back, 1973 was a year to remember for a number of reasons:
BL launched the Allegro to replace the Austin 1100 / 1300 range
Pink Floyd released Dark Side of the Moon.
Edward Heath was Prime Minister
The best selling single was by David Cassidy's the Puppy Song and in a garage in Leeds Dennis Shepherd had the vision to start Jade Press as a "rapid Printing Service" to meet the needs of local businesses.

The attached image shows a pad printed with the home address where Jade started some 33 years ago.

After 2 years Jade was so busy that it needed premises and Dennis and Marina his wife opened a shop at 20 York Road and within a few months employed a (very) young Andrew Barber.

The typical kit at this stage in the Jade Press factory would have been Letraset and a typewriter for artwork, printing on a Multilith press and trimming with a hand operated guillotine. The accounts for the year 1974 show a turnover of £6727.60 (yes the 60p was important) and retained profit of - wait for it - nothing!

During the late 1970s and early 1980s Jade Press grew steadily and took over a small printers called Thumbprint, eventually taking over 4 shops from 18 - 24 York Road. Due to the poor layout at this stage, the paper store was upstairs!

1983 saw Darren and Barrie join Jade Press in the print and studio respectively. By this stage turnover had reached a giddy £182,114 and the installation of a new Rotaprint had allowed for full colour work to be produced - on a single colour press!

1986 was a sad year when Marina died after a long battle with cancer.

The City Council issued notice on the premises in early 1988 that they were to be demolished due to a road widening scheme and a new flyover and later that year Jade moved to Lavender walk which gave 4000 square foot of production space.

Further developments during the next years included the taking over of another company "KT Print" to bring turnover in 1991 to £558,045!
The plant at this stage would have included artwork via Compugraphic photo-composers and print on single colour Oliver and Ryobi presses (the Rotaprint having fallen to pieces).

Growth remained constant during the period at Lavender Walk.

Several print machines were purchased to handle the ever increasing volume of spot colour work produced.

The Apple Mac revolution in digital artwork was taken up by Jade, the earliest Macintoshes were purchased with processing power that would not even open the operating systems.

In 1998 Jade rented additional warehousing space to cope with the new "print management" product that had generated a huge amount of new business in the storage and distribution area.

Indeed a number of accounts won during the late 1990s have grown significantly and are still managed in 2006.

In 2001 the lease on Lavender Walk ended and Jade were able to make the move to much needed new premises.

After searches across West Yorkshire the site at Eagle Industrial Estate was chosen and In September 2001 the business moved to the newly refurbished unit.

Unit 2 Eagle Industrial Estate had 13,000 square foot of office and production space - giving an additional 250% of space to grow into!

The new unit allowed for the installation of a Komori 5 colour press and our first Computer to Plate system which followed within the first weeks of the move.

Several more major accounts were won allowing for continued growth and additional staff and kit to handle the work.

The initial investment in CtP was soon swamped by the work throughput and a 2nd CtP system from Screen was installed in 2003.

In 2005 the decision was made to install a B2 multi colour press .

This installation of the B2 press necessitated the move of the warehouse to separate premises at unit 5 on the same estate. This allowed the warehouse to run from an 8000 square foot base with its own management and staff of 3.

2006 saw the biggest investment period to date with the 2006 IPEX show allowing analysis of various pieces of kit and the opportunity to negotiate the cost effective purchase machinery.

From IPEX, Jade researched and installed an MBO folder, Muller Valore stitching line and B2 laminator - a spend of almost £175,000.

During summer 2006 the Komori Lithrone in its B3 format had gradually fallen out of favour and a 2nd B2 format colour press was sourced.

In summer 2006, Dennis Shepherd also retired from Jade as part of a management buy-out.

The existing shareholders funded the buy out and ensured a continuation of the growth that had been experienced for over 3 decades.

2006 also saw 3 major public sector wins and a number of private sector contract wins.

Staff now number 35 and the factory operates on a double day basis allowing flexibility for production and also ensuring that Jade remain competitive.

The re-brand that you see within this web-site was undertaken to mark a significant step change in the position of Jade within the print market. The former trading styles of Jade Press and Jade Print Management being brought together under a single banner of the copyrighted name of Jade - in actual fact most people knew us as Jade anyway.