Post-press

Would you do business with a crook? Probably not. That’s why Nigel Crook decided not to use his surname when he started up his own finishing company. Neither, for that matter, did he think it appropriate to use that of his partner Robert Crab.

To cut a long story short, that’s why a finisher that has been located in Tonbridge, Kent for more than 20 years is called Buckingham Binders. (In case you’re wondering, it’s actually named after Buckingham House, its first ever location.)

The company was established in the mid 1980s, at which time Crook was working as a print finishing manager. A printer he knew in Tunbridge Wells, Crab, wanted to start up a finishing business that would work predominantly for him. Crook was brought in to run the finishing side in partnership with Crab and a third-party financial backer.

Crab passed away around two years ago and, as a result, Buckingham’s future was somewhat up in the air. Crab’s wife was not interested in taking over and, as a result, the silent partner was keen to divest its interest.

Major decision
Crook was faced with the choice of either buying the company outright or closing it down. He refinanced its equipment, generated enough money to buy out the other partners and, in December 2005, became the sole owner.

His drive to keep the company going appears to stem from a devotion to finishing that some might consider obsessive. When Crook was seeking advice on taking over the company, the bank, an undisclosed millionaire silent backer and another adviser told him that since he would be taking on more responsibilities, he should increase his own salary. He declined.

“I have a good living,” he explains. “I have enough to look after the family and enjoy life. And I’m doing something I really enjoy. I’ve been a finisher for 30-plus years and I want the business to be here for the next 20 years after I retire.”

Since taking over the company, Crook has well and truly made it his own, investing in new areas such as miniature finishing and buying a new stitching line to handle larger items.

His plans don’t stop there. “If someone else is doing something that I think we should be doing then I look into it. I’ve even taken a drill to a machine to get it right.”

As the business has matured, so too has Crook’s love for the industry, inspiring him to bring in a deputy to free him up to investigate new technologies and products around the world.

He says: “I like to keep up with developments and, now that I have a good number two, I’ve had more time to get out and see people. I’ve even been to China a few times.”

Although specialist finishing is the future for Buckingham Binders, it still relies on overspill work from printers. Crook has found that taking work from printers with in-house finishing can be difficult to arrange because of the difference in costing, due mainly, he says, to the finishing deals open to printers. He explains: “Press manu­facturers offer special deals to printers so they can buy a press with a folder on the back. It essentially means that the printer is getting the folder cheaper than I would pay for it.

“[So] when you come to take overflow work from printers they have an idea of how much each product should cost based on their costs. But, of course, their machine was a lot cheaper than ours so when we come to cost for them they always expect it cheaper than we offer them.”

However, Crook feels the biggest threat to legitimate trade finishers is companies that are doing the work at cost or less. He cites a recent quote: “Not too long ago, I was asked to cost a job and I quoted £4,600 but was told we would have to go lower. At the time, we didn‘t have much work in so I went back and stripped the cost to the absolute minimum, which was £3,600. I was told that the company had been quoted £1,900 by someone else.

“You can’t compete with that. But those kind of people won’t last long – eventually they will go out of business. I don’t mind honest competition, but there are a lot of companies that don’t know what they’re doing.”

Crook insists he will never follow down that route and is proud of the fact that his company keeps getting business based on its reputation. “We are considered to be reliable so people come back. The way I see it, finishing is about selling a service, not a product. The customer is renting the machine and staff time, so we have to give everything for that. I have no intention of being the cheapest finisher, I only want to be the best.”