THE MAN FROM FROME HAS STAGED ONE OF the great comebacks. Last year the company he worked for hit the financial buffers and was only rescued in a last-minute deal. Now only months later the company is at the top of its form and winning. That man from Frome is Formula 1 driver Jenson Button, but his comeback story might equally apply to Kevin Sarney, managing director of Butler Tanner & Dennis.

Intriguingly, one of the first books that the newly reorganised printing company printed last year was the story of Lewis Hamilton’s winning of the World Championship, opening the possibility that later this year it might be doing the same for local hero Button. The Hamilton book was printed, bound and delivered within a week; a level of service that is going to be a key part of the BT&D strategy into the future.

Last year, however, it was very different. It seemed as if the country’s leading colour book printer had no future at all. It had collapsed once under the weight of its pension fund commitments, only to be rescued by the false promise represented by the MPI group. When bills went unpaid and the administrators were called in, the situation for the 162-year-old business seemed terminal.

As a director of the stricken business, Sarney promised to try to raise the funds to buy the business, but was stymied and unable to raise the amount a new business would need. “We had raised some finance, but not enough to keep the business going in the longer term,” he remembers. “It would perhaps have been easier to walk away.”

Then out of the blue stepped millionaire benefactor Felix Dennis, a local man, inveterate book lover and poet, who had had a collection of verse printed at Butler & Tanner. He saw the opportunity that Sarney had spotted for a UK-based colour book printer but, unlike the now managing director, had the funds to do something about it. Sarney says: “We always believed there was a great business here. We had had problems – the market place had moved to the Far East and Europe as the exchange rate moved, for example.

“We felt there was an opportunity, but the key piece was the market place. Did the market place want a quality colour book printer in the UK? The answer was yes, but with certain caveats about cost, service and quality.”

After two weeks negotiating with the administrators, supported by the Dennis financial team, a deal was agreed and the new company created – but on a much more sustainable basis than before, says Sarney.

In August last year, Butler Tanner & Dennis was born as a much smaller business than that which had employed 280 people earlier in the year, and smaller than the business had been when it operated subsidiaries like Selwood Press – for short run work – and Lawrence-Allen in Weston-super-Mare. Sarney had cut his managerial teeth at this business a decade ago, so has the experience of running a plant. “The new business was smaller, it wasn’t handcuffed to high operational costs and had a much more flexible workforce that could expand and contract capacity to meet market demands,” he explains.

In all 90 people, selected for their skills and commitment, have been taken on. Again emphasising the importance of creating a business which is sustainable into the future, Sarney pledges that at most BT&D will support 120 staff.

Back at the factory, the new business had to clear the mess left by the process of separating away the machinery that had belonged to MPI’s other trading operations. “The place was very sad and in total disarray,” says Sarney, who has kept photos as a reminder of that time. The clean-up alone took several weeks, along with stripping down the KBA large format presses and refurbishing rollers, grippers and so on to bring them into first class condition. Just as importantly behind the scenes, a reorganisation of the company structure, its way of operating and its message to the market was going on to ensure that BT&D would not hit the rocks again. “We had to do complete due diligence: I didn’t want something that would come back and fail again,” says Sarney. But he adds: “I have told everybody that there are no guarantees.”

For the moment, there is optimism as much as relief that at least some of those losing their jobs have been reemployed and that the business is not struggling. “We had our best ever month in March,” he continues. It is currently printing eight out of the top 20 titles in the non-fiction bestsellers list and has produced reprints of the latest Gordon Ramsay and Delia Smith cookbooks, where publishers went overseas for the initial order.

This is where BT&D’s key strength lies. It can reprint quickly and in volume. Stacks of cases for the TV tie-in of Grow Your Own Drugs await their blocks and show that the Frome printer can keep pace with sales demand better than any printer in Asia, or one from Germany, Italy or Spain. And while other UK printers can print quality colour books, none can match the Frome company’s ability to print and bind 50,000 in a week. “I believe that UK publishers want a supply chain that includes a sterling element as well as euros and dollars,” he says. That will include new titles as well as reprints, but Sarney doesn’t expect a wholesale rush of work seeking UK printers as opposed to the Far East or Europe, despite the favourable swing in the exchange rate. The business plan was drawn up without expectations of the pound’s fall, though it will have helped in talking to publishers. Many have visited the plant to see what is there and check that the claims have substance.

“The question for these customers is ‘Can we deliver?’ We have to answer our customers and show that we can deliver time and time again. The product has to be the best, yet there is no room for complacency, so we have to be working hard to ensure that our quality continues.” This is the message that has become a mission statement that all involved had accepted. It also formed a key plank of the business plan, endorsed by the Felix Dennis team. Dennis himself is hands-off, while the supervisory board comprising the Dennis finance expertise is there to check that the figures are pointing in the right direction.

“Felix has a passion for books and the printed word and he wanted an investment that he could enjoy over the long term,” Sarney says. It also has all the signs of being a shrewd investment. The company has none of the costs associated with the old businesses, something that would have been very expensive otherwise. “It needed someone with the amount of cash that Felix had available. His optimism for the business has helped us through. If we had been an mbo, or vc-backed, we would have to be thinking short-term. This way we are building for the future, which brings a different type of pressure.”

There is no connection with Dennis Publishing, though the magazine publisher has been creating ‘bookazines’ – high pagination, perfect bound products that Sarney says would be suited to BT&D’s large format presses.

The new money has allowed the company to invest. This is evident in the factory where the tidy-up goes beyond a lick of paint. Offices have been rearranged: the account execs now sit alongside the repro teams, each dealing with files from publishers and able to talk to each other about issues that arise. “That’s the start of good customer service,” Sarney comments.

The investment has also included a new Kolbus KM600 perfect binder. “This was bought for its fast make ready capabilities. We are concentrating on make ready because we need to reduce this cost as much as we can to get the unit prices that the customer wants to pay. We are also seeing production runs come down, so make ready is more important than running speed. We can switch between hot-melt and PUR and are looking at using remote diagnostics to keep it running as much as possible.”

Later this year the old platesetters, dating from the early Creo days, are being replaced by the latest large format Kodak ctp units along with a company-wide shift towards a standardised colour management approach, offering file-to-proof, monitor proof, press or plate output from the same file. This will cover digital as well as offset print. Currently the operation is centred on two Kodak NexPress machines, but with fast response to the fore, the company is keeping a close eye on digital developments, including new inkjet technologies.

Digital printing is sure to loom large as the business goes forward, as it fits precisely with the concept of offering fast turnaround to publishers, but with the caveat that the finished product has to be of the right quality.

“An announcement about a significant investment is going to be made later in the year,” Sarney says, without adding further clues.

The changes are more than cosmetic. While Sarney says he is no follower of fashionable management theories, the company is definitely calling on lean management techniques and structures. Among the most significant changes is the loss of a tier of supervisory management. Now quality and productivity rests in the hands of team leaders, identified by the red shirts they wear about the plant. Quality is checked at the point of production in order to make on-the-spot corrections. All staff are involved in the process and the regular Friday meetings between management and staff, which were started as production got underway last year, have continued. “I get asked some very tough questions. It is all part of building openness and trust,” says Sarney. The managing director also has a clock-in card like everyone else at the factory. The benefit is that everyone appreciates the conditions that the company is operating in and understands the impact of cutting make readies and controlling costs. Taped to the top of one of the Multiflex sewers is a price list of different consumables and parts which might need replacement. The message is clear. Staff need to take responsibility for what they do: the old demarcations have fallen.

A shared vision, trust and commitment to each other is enshrined in a Charter, proudly displayed at the factory entrance, spelling out that the commitment between the company and its people is built on mutual respect and trust. It is signed by Sarney and Stuart North, the Unite FoC. It was a deliberate choice to continue with a union on site, though Sarney stresses that this wasn’t essential.

The company also operates with a different shift pattern, based on two shifts for the majority of the time, but able to flex and increase to three-shift working and the inclusion of casuals during the periods of peak demand. This way the company is not carrying a huge overhead for 10 months in order to manage the two months of the year when it is running flat out. “The overhead has to be proportionate to what is needed, without burdening the business with excessively high operational costs,” Sarney explains.

There are no plans to move from Frome, nor even to vacate the site which has been home for 100 years. BT&D has a firm place in the community, as has its saviour Felix Dennis. He included Frome on his recent poetry reading tour and was rewarded by a well attended event. He has become as much of a local hero as Jenson Button is. Sarney, though, is more modest about his achievements. “If I went into a local pub, as the boss I would still have to buy the drinks; but should Felix walk in, I doubt that he would have to spend anything.”

At one time the book printer had relied on the success of a Christmas-time Jamie Oliver or Delia Smith cookbook to turn the presses and compensate for 10 slower months. That is no longer the case. Sarney is building a business that aims to be sustainable without the benefit of these super-sellers. However, come September, he would clearly like to print the book commemorating new Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button, the comeback kid from Frome.


Sustainable in every sense
The other side of building a sustainable business, as Sarney aims to do with BT&D, is making sure that the business is sustainable in an environmental sense. Indeed, this point is part of the message to UK publishers.

The company has inherited the ISO 14001 standard and is certified to FSC and PEFC standards. But it can do more, Sarney acknowledges. “We have printing and bindery under one roof, which is a strong message as there are no transportation charges or emissions involved,” he says. “Now we are thinking about the next stage. We could, for example, back-fill the trucks delivering paper with books destined for the publisher’s warehouse. We are looking at the potential for geothermal energy as Bath, with its underground heated springs, is not far away.”

The drive to cut make readies has a message about waste reduction, and what waste is created is well segregated for recycling.

And the message is getting through to publishers. One of the first to use the new business was guidebook publisher Alastair Sawday, which has won awards for its environmental ethos, and endorses BT&D as one of its ‘green friends’. The company is getting it right.


The Butler Tanner & Dennis arsenal
Creo Platesetter 5457 VLF
Heidelberg Trendsetter 3244 AL


KBA Rapida 162 eight-colour perfector (4/4)
KBA Rapida 162 four-colour perfcetor (2/2)
2 x KBA Rapida 162 five-colour
KBA 105 six-colour


2 x Kodak NexPress 2100


10 x MBO buckle folders


2 x 12-station Multiplex gatherer-sewers
2 x Kolbus DA85 case makers
2 x Kolbus PE70 blocking machines
Miller Johannisberg 104S foil stamping press


Kolbus KM600 perfect binding line


Bilhofer EK102-50 laminator
Sakurai screen uv varnishing