A printing business established in a garden shed more than 20 years ago, has completed a £2m investment project with a move to new premises. Jonathan Jones met its owner Paul Coulson.

A BUSINESS that started in a North Yorkshire shed, has just completed its fifth move.

And the new offices are far removed from a wooden hut at the bottom of the garden.

The 8,000sq ft premises represents a £2.5m investment and six months of hard work by printing business In-Print, which is now in the York Road Industrial Estate, in Malton, North Yorkshire.

The business jointly owned by Paul Coulson, 50, and his wife Beverly, employs 20 staff, many of whom are family members, including Mr Coulson's mother-in-law and sister-in-law.

The business prides itself on its family ties - Mr Coulson's brother-in-law, Paul Wright, whose building business is also in Malton, helped build the premises the company has moved to.

Mr Coulson had been sharing premises with his younger brother, Graham, 43, who runs GMC Alarms, elsewhere on the estate.

Mr Coulson said: "I'd been sharing premises with Graham's business for the past eight years, and when this plot of land came up for development, I went for it.

"We were sharing 6,000sq ft premises at the time, and my move gave Graham's business space to expand."

The building represented a £500,000 investment by In-Print, with new presses costing a further £2m.

Mr Coulson received a European Enterprise grant of £50,000 to help with the installation of the Heidleberg six-colour press, the only such press in the UK, and one of only three in Europe.

It is this press, alongside the firm's more traditional two-colour presses, that Mr Coulson hopes will help him diversify into new areas.

In particular, he is hoping to move into the pharmaceutical packing industry, with interest already being shown by companies in the sector.

He said: "The new six-colour press features the latest dye-cutting equipment, which allows packaging to be printed and cut at the same time.

"The new equipment allows us to produce 15,000 sheets of printed material an hour.

"I'm already getting a lot of interest from companies, particularly those in the food packaging industry and pharmaceutical sector, because we can cut their packaging at the same time as we print it."

He said: "We can now produce anything from CD covers to toothpaste packaging, as well as corporate brochures and standard office work, as a result of the latest dye-cutting equipment."

Mr Coulson became interested in printing when he worked for Diformat, in Malton, making packaging for lamps.

He spent 13 years there, alongside his father, who now works in his brother's alarm business.

When that firm folded, Mr Coulson began his print business in a garden shed in Railway Street, Malton.

He said: "My dad joined me in the business and my mother originally did all the bookkeeping for me, as well as Graham's alarm business.

"I've come a long way since then, but its important not to forget your roots.

"In the print business, image is everything.

"The kind of customers I'm trying to attract want to know that you run a professional company.

"I think that has been achieved by the move to the new premises.

"It's also allowed us to introduce new services and we now have an in-house design team for clients to use.

"The aim of In-Print is to be seen as a one-stop shop for the printing industry.

"When clients see our address, they might think we are in the middle of nowhere, but when they take the time to visit our new premises, they soon realise that the printing business does not get any more high-tech than this."