Page 24 - PWM2026_MARCH EBOOK

BETTER BUSINESS

Automating

for growth

Thirteen years ago Claire Taylforth joined Leeds-
based Northern Flags as marketing manager of
what was then a 10-staff business. It specialised in
high-quality custom flags and banners with manu-
facturing outsourced to Europe and Thailand, by
Hannah Jordan
F was all very manual and we were

“It was great to get us started, but it
ast forward to 2026 and
Taylforth, now operations
director, oversees a
growing too quickly for it to support
60-strong workforce across
that. We knew that we needed to do
a reinvigorated and
rebranded business, incor-
our plans for the future,” she says.
porating FaberExposize UK and something in order to accommodate
Taylforth explains that although
smaller web-to-print brand Northern
Flags. production was essentially running
A continual programme of invest- smoothly, order numbers were
ment over the last decade has seen an increasing so much that bottlenecks
explosion in growth for were happening across the sales,
FaberExposize, with the business account management and studio
bringing all print in-house and gradu- departments where campaigns were
ally expanding its production, fulfil- taking longer, affecting lead times,
ment and warehousing footprint to because there were not enough
2,790sqm on the Millshaw Industrial hands to carry out what at the time
Estate in Leeds, its latest unit being were very manual processes. what a new software system should look like, gathering information and
added just last month. “We were constantly having to feedback from different departments. Taylforth says her hands-on
So, how has the business managed recruit within the admin team to pro- approach to the business over the years helped her understand exactly
to keep consistency of quality and what was needed where. She researched numerous options keeping in
service while pushing up production cess the orders and when we were mind the company’s growth ambitions.
capacity and meeting ever-growing recruiting, the training was difficult “We talked about both the IT overhaul and new hardware investments
demand? because a lot of the information was for quite some time and did a lot of research and testing of equipment and
in people’s heads. So onboarding and finally I put together a proposal for the spend,” explains Taylforth.
The challenge inducting was becoming more and “It’s not just about the analysing of the technology, it’s as much about
“A few years ago we were at break- more of a challenge, because we were finding the right partner,” she adds.
ing-point and we knew we needed an producing a wider variety of stuff and The company decided on full software and hardware integration across
internal system that could grow with the jobs were becoming more com- the business so, in 2023 the company signed with PrintIQ to implement a
us,” states Taylforth. plex.” new MIS, while new automation packages, Enfocus Switch and Pitstop
Throughout the intense period of The company realised around Server, were also added, as well as new accounting software and CRM sys-
growth since bringing print in-house three or four years ago that it had
in 2016, the business moved site and grown to a point where it needed to tem to achieve full integration with the MIS.
made numerous bold hardware pur- completely overhaul its internal busi- A consultant from ColorEngine was enlisted to help guide the team
chases, always looking to up its game. through significant parts of the transformation, while the business also
The problem was that the software ness systems including its workflow, partnered with the team from PrintIQ, which UK sales manager Rob
system supporting the business was data management and job handling Thurston says was an essential part of managing the change.
essentially an accounts package that systems. “We worked closely with Claire and the wider team throughout plan-
Taylforth had adapted and added ning, configuration, testing, and rollout, ensuring their business needs
other software to in order to suit the The method were driving the platform design. Partnership is essential for adoption,
company’s needs. The team took its time to explore trust, and success, as strong collaboration enables better decisions,

24 PrintWeek MENA March 2026 www.printweekmena.com