Northampton family-run printing company that worked on London Olympics in 2012 to celebrate 70th birthday

A printing company founded in Northampton is celebrating its 70th birthday next week, looking back on mega contracts with the 2012 Olympics and universities across the UK, among others as they prepare for a new net-zero future.

Belmont Press, now found at Lodge Farm Industrial Estate, began in a 'shed' in 1952 with just one old printing machine.

After 70 years, it now employs 94 staff whose work appears in prestigious places all across the UK, and has earned the company millions. All without ever leaving Northampton.

Trevor Thomas, aged 79, the son of Herbert Thomas who founded the company, has been a big part of the company for around 49 years.

He said: "It's been a family business right from the start, when my father founded it. I was born to help out with my father's business, essentially.

"As soon as I could manipulate the tools I became part of it. So I've been involved with the company right from the start.

"The business began in a shed on Duston Road in Northampton. The printing machine was delivered from a house in Far Cotton. It was rather old, and that's what my father used to start the company. From there we moved between multiple sites in Northampton, until finally settling in Duston.

"Nowadays the type setting and composing side of it has changed completely because of desktop computers, and the actual printing part of it has improved immensely. It's much easier to get a lot of stuff out with a lot less people. But it isn't as skilled as it was in my father's time."

Over the years, the company has taken millions of pounds worth of printing contracts with some very large clients.

Chief amongst these was the London Olympics in 2012 which netted the company more than £2 million. It saw Belmont producing the main ticketing guide, all ticket wallets for people ordering tickets and all event guides as well as supporting collateral for the event.

Other big wins included contracts to supply the Department for Work and Pensions and their job centres with literature in 1990, the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games off of the back of their London 2012 success and continued links in the educational sector where they print prospectuses and other literature for major institutions like Manchester Metropolitan University, University College London and the University of Cambridge.

Closer to home, they even partnered with Northampton Saints for whom they have printed a new cook book for free in support of its foundation.

But the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020 threatened to cut the company's successes short. Contracts with the educational sector quickly dried up as physical leaflets were no longer being requested, taking a big chunk out of the company's revenue.

Yet an unexpected spike in, of all things, the construction industry helped soften the blow for long enough to get them through the worst of it.

Trevor said: "We are lucky to have survived, certainly over the last two years. We've had a very rough time. We seem to be coming through it now, but it's been a very difficult period.

"We've been successful in the past because as our industry has changed from more traditional methods to electronic, we've kept keeping on and here we are today.

"It was always intended to be a family business, so I have passed my position of managing director over to my nephew to carry things on. It is a great industry to be in, I have to say."

Joe Billingham, sales and bid team manager for Belmont Press, has been with the company since 2001. He described how the pandemic, which had placed his company in such a bind, had also, ironically, provided a hidden solution.

He said: "We've seen a huge boom in the construction industry and it kept us printing during the pandemic. Of course, people were staying at home and began looking into home improvements they wanted to make. Those construction brochures and DIY publications were looking for that printing work to be done.

"We have seen the printing industry shrink over the years. But we're still around because we have embraced the modern age. For example, we are currently embedding code into some of our products as a kind of alternate reality that shows projections when you hold your phone up to it. That's what you have to do in the 21st century to turn a profit and to keep going.

"Belmont is just a good local Northants business. It's a big family player in the industry and has supported many of us through some very tough times. We want people to realise that our facility is avialable right on their doorstep and it's a great resource to have available."

The company will be celebrating their 70th birthday on Sunday February 27 and will be providing 100 cupcakes for the occasion.