The present partners of Castle Printing Company can trace their printing heritage back to 1906 when John Castle decided to start his own printing business behind a small shop in Romford, Essex after finishing his apprenticeship with a local firm, a bold step indeed for a young man.
The business carried on for many years under the control of Arthur Castle, eldest son of the founder, supplying all types of printing to local businesses and individuals, and it was during his time at the helm that litho printing from pre-sensitised plates started to replace the traditional method of printing from moveable type and later hot metal produced for Linotype composing machines. Litho printing took over completely in the late sixties and by the time that the firm had outgrown the old building and moved to a purpose built factory in Rayleigh, the switch to Litho was complete.
The next step forward was nearly as bold as that of John Castle when the present
partners, Richard and Roger Castle, the founder’s grandsons, seeing the tremendous growth in continuous stationery, ordered, in 1984, their first web fed continuous machine to produce short run computer stationery. Spending over four times as much money on one machine than ever before, the risks were high, but the potential great. This market took off very quickly and Castle Printing Company became one of the leading suppliers of this type of product to the trade in the South East, gradually adding more machinery and ancilliary equipment to increase the amount of forms that could be produced in house.
During the 15 years the market remained strong, but after the millenium continuous stationery began to decrease as windows driven software became more popular and laser printers using A4 sheets began to replace dot matrix tractor driven printers. To combat this the company started to produce A4 sheets direct from their web presses and also installed a Bowe sheeter to enable books, pads and sets to be produced using the web fed presses.
In 2002 the company moved to their present address in South Woodham Ferrers
within a stone’s throw of the River Crouch, one of the East Coast’s major yachting centres, and continues to provide a complete service on all types of printed matter. The printing traditions within the family continued when Richard Castle, the founder’s great grandson joined the company and it will be he who will be charged with the task of overseeing the continual search for excellence and customer service into the future. |
