Clinical celebrates 45 years of finishing

Court (left) with founder Alvin Brown: "We specialise in anything awkward or complex and miniature"
Court (left) with founder Alvin Brown: "We specialise in anything awkward or complex and miniature"

Leicester-based Clinical Print Finishers is celebrating 45 years in business this month.

Founded on 1 March 1975 as Senator Print Finishers by Alvin Brown with a loan from his father, the business was originally established in a Loughborough foundry on a loan of £375 and started with three employees.

It had invested in its first miniature folding machine within two years and by the mid-1980s was the largest trade finisher in the country.

A further decade on the business had outgrown its initial model and established a specialist miniature division, which launched the Clinical brand, in 1993.

Clinical was registered as a separate company and based in its own unit across the road from Senator, which was subsequently sold to a management buyout in 2000 as the company moved its focus purely to Clinical.

Clinical managing director Jamie Court said the business recently held an internal party for its staff and sent a newsletter out to its customers to mark the occasion.

Discussing his thoughts on the company's longevity, he told Printweek: “We specialise in anything awkward or complex and miniature. We started off as pharmaceutical but we’ve now branched out to anything that’s miniature; our niche is that everything has to be specialist.”

From its humble beginnings Clinical has grown to employ 38 staff and continues to invest in new machinery to keep ahead of the curve, most recently a Horizon folder to meet growing demand for Z-fold cards.

From its 2,415sqm premises, the business operates around 50 folding and stitching machines and offers services including miniature folding, stitching, glued booklets, glued and tabbed outserts, die-cutting, ram punching, drilling and other associated trade services.