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Following an audit of its Labels Division at the end of October, Integrity was awarded AA status by the BRCGS.

The BRCGS (Brand Reputation through Compliance of Global Standards) is a leading safety and quality certification programme made to provide certificates to food sector businesses, who are then able to prove that their products are safe and legal in the marketplace. At the forefront of developing safety standards, the BRCGS apply their work to over 28,000 certificated sites in over 130 countries.

So, what is the AA standard?

This grading comes from a system applied throughout the whole supply chain, designed to reflect the food hygiene practices of each business. The standards are certified after being thorough and scrutinising in every possible area where food safety could potentially be compromised. After being analysed, the business is granted a grade based on the number and type of non-conformances that business meets. From the lowest grade being D (or Uncertified if no grade at all is considered) to the highest-grade being AA. In this case, this means Integrity Labels was awarded the highest certification possible for their label safety and quality standards.

Lewis Hand, Integrity’s Labels Sales Director, had this to comment:
“In the midst of the pandemic, it was a great story; the fact everyone pulled together as a department to not only renew the certification but to achieve an AA rating was a huge win for us. We are finding the BRCGS standard itself is specified more and more by our customer base, so the certification is absolutely vital for Integrity Labels due to us dealing largely with the food and beverage market sector.”

This awarded certification reinforces Integrity’s no-compromise approach to exceeding the expectations of health and hygiene standards within the food and beverage sector.

Keep up do date with the latest news and events from Integrity Print via our news section, or find Integrity Print on Facebook and LinkedIn.

Earlier this year, Integrity donated 30 customised Feel Good Food bags and a Sensory Fireworks Panel to Connections Day Services –  a centre run by Virgin Care that provides opportunities for adults with learning disabilities in North East Somerset.

The service delivers group and one-to-one activities focused around important areas such as communication, health & wellbeing, independent living skills, social skills, physiotherapy, and support with a person’s sensory needs.

Integrity was keen to support the local organisation, who provides support to a family member of one of our colleagues.

Claire Ramster, Manager of Connections Day Services, run by Virgin Care on behalf of Bath and North East Somerset Council and NHS Bath and North East Somerset CCG  commented on the reaction to the new equipment:

“We have had a fantastic response from our service users, their families and the team to the new Feel Good Food bags. Feel Good Food is a healthy eating food scheme that provides a weekly bag to its customers. The bag has all the ingredients needed for a main course and a dessert. The bag also contains recipe cards with photos and accessible instructions to support a person’s cooking skills. The old Feel Good Food bags were faded and had seen years of service for the food scheme. The new Feel Good Food bags provided by Integrity look really smart, they are easy to clean, and they saved the food scheme a lot of money.”

“Integrity also donated a Fireworks Panel in our Sensory Room, which has proved a hit with service users. The panel creates beautiful light displays and combines this with different music and sound effects, ranging from the whizz-bang of fireworks to the calming sound of water. It can be used to provide a background sensory experience while an activity is going on, or it can be used in an interactive session where a service user pushes different buttons to change the colour, pattern, music, and sound effects. Our service users are still discovering new sounds and patterns.”

Integrity’s Chief Executive Mark Cornford, who personally delivered the new equipment to the Connections Day Services Centre commented:

“We’re delighted to be able to support the Connections Day Services team, and it’s great to hear that there has been such a positive response to the new equipment. It was a genuine pleasure to meet some of the team and learn more about the fantastic work they do, which makes such a difference to the people who rely on their services.

“I think it’s important for businesses to support organisations like this and give something back to their local communities. We’ll certainly look to continue supporting the Connections Day Services team wherever possible.”

Integrity: Giving Back

From our ongoing environmental initiatives to our support for local charities and volunteer groups, Integrity has continuously strived to have a positive impact on our local, and indeed wider, community.

If your organisation would like to work with Integrity to help us make an even greater social or environmental impact, we’d love to hear from you. Please call one of our friendly team or just leave us a message.

Integrity has donated a range of litter picking equipment and accessories to a local volunteer group – The Wombles of Midsomer Norton.

Earlier in the year, Integrity was contacted by Sandra Coles, a volunteer Womble who was keen to discuss the problem of litter around the trading estate. Familiar with the ongoing issue, Integrity took the opportunity to learn more about the local volunteer group. Sandra explained:

“The Wombles of Midsomer Norton and Surrounding Areas’ Facebook page was formed in the middle of February.  We have three head Wombles, Laura Jardine, Nicola Smith, and me.  There are 312 members on the site, but we have a core of very dedicated wombles of around twenty who organise and/or attend the regular organised litter picks.  These and other members litter pick several times a week on their own though!”

Sandra went on to discuss why she had joined the volunteer group:

“The reason I joined was because many hands make light work!  I started picking back in January to give me a purpose to my daily walks during lockdown and it went from there.  It was good to join likeminded people. Now, I’m Chief Fund Raiser, badgering companies for equipment, but also Communications Womble, writing to the press, the councils and have also been interviewed by the BBC!  I’ve been labelled the persuasive womble or ‘pushy one’!”

After finding out more about the Wombles and the tireless work they had been doing in the local community, Integrity was eager to help the volunteers. Chief Executive Mark Cornford said:

“I think anyone who gives their precious time and effort up for a worthwhile cause should be applauded and encouraged. We wanted to help the Wombles, good citizens of Midsomer Norton and surrounding areas, in their efforts to make our community a better place. If we can help in some small way, then we are delighted to do so.”

Through our “Challenge Us“, Integrity donated an assortment of new litter picking equipment and accessories to the Wombles, including extendable litter pickers, bin bag hoops, and personalised hi-vis vests. The items were gratefully received by Sandra Coles, Nicola Smith, Mike Chivers and Sarah Lawrence-Pearce, who all joined us at Integrity’s site at the end of April.

Integrity will look to continue supporting the Wombles and the community to improve our local environment.

Integrity: Giving Back

Donating equipment to the Wombles of Midsomer Norton is just one example of Integrity’s continued commitment to supporting our community. Whether it’s raising money for the NHS, supporting local charities, providing work experience to young students, sponsoring local sports teams, or launching environmental initiatives, Integrity has always strived to have a positive impact on our local, and indeed wider, community.

If your organisation would like to work with Integrity to help us make an even greater social or environmental impact, we’d love to hear from you. Please call one of our friendly team or just leave us a message.

Integrity ramps up their high-volume leaflet production capacity with investment in a new automated finishing line.

In January, Integrity’s production floor saw the arrival of a new automated finishing line, which is set to transform their folded leaflet production.

The Hunkeler Gen8 finishing line with in-line cutting, separating and stacking modules, provides Integrity with a high-performance roll-to-stack solution that doubles their capacity for folded leaflet production. Commenting on the new acquisition, Account Director Nathan Douglas said:

“Over the past few years, we’ve seen an increase in the demand for high-volume leaflet printing. In the past we weren’t always able to meet this demand but now, with this new investment, we have the capacity to produce up to 10 million folded leaflets per week – doubling the capacity of 2020. The new technology provides an automated, inline solution that allows us to streamline our process and become far more efficient . . .The new commercial line also gives us the enhanced finishing capability to meet some of our clients’ more complicated design requirements”.

The acquisition of the Hunkeler Gen8 finishing line follows on from the 2019 investment in the Hunkeler offline roll-fed CS6-2 cutting system, and it is the combination of these two systems that allows Integrity to achieve its 10 million folded leaflets per week production capacity.

With installation and testing completed at the end of January, the new finishing line has been running at full capacity throughout February, with no fewer than 50 projects now completed. Integrity’s latest investment marks a pivotal step further into the high-volume leaflet production market.

The Integrity Solution

Whether you are a small family business or large international corporation, leaflets and flyers are a cost-effective and impactful way to reach your customers and promote your brand. With many of us now spending more time at home, more and more of our clients are now seeking to produce door drop mailings and non-personalised press inserts to reach their target audiences.

At Integrity, we can print and finish up to 10 million leaflets and flyers per week, in a full range of sizes and folding configurations up to 16 pages – including A5, A4, DL, fold bolt cut and nest, and bangtail envelopes.

We also provide direct mail services for a wide range of household names in the retail, charity and financial sectors. We work closely with our clients to produce innovative paper-based products that enable them to create more effective direct mail pieces. So, as well as printing your bespoke leaflets and flyers, we can also provide a 100% mailing service for your high volume, direct mail work – for the complete Integrity solution.

To find out more, please call our friendly team or leave us a message

In the run up to Christmas, and as a deviation from the traditional Christmas jumper day, the Integrity Team held a Christmas jumper week, where staff were invited to wear their festive attire each day to raise funds for local NHS charity, The Forever Friends Appeal.

The Forever Friends Appeal is the official charity of the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust. The charity funds projects that make a real difference to the lives of hundreds of thousands of patients cared for by the Royal United Hospitals Bath each year, as well as the friends and family who visit them. Their fundraisers and donors make it possible for them to help pay for additional equipment, research, and innovations, as well as finishing touches and ‘extras’ that complement the existing high-quality care at the Hospitals.

2020 highlighted to all of us just how crucial the role of the NHS and all key workers has been in keeping the entire nation running, and as safe as possible. The decision to raise funds for our local NHS charity was one that was wholeheartedly embraced by the entire team. Boosted by a contribution from Integrity, staff managed to raise a total of £680 for the Forever Friends Appeal. Marketing Manager Ned Lowe commented:

“It was great to see so many of us getting involved this year. From penguin earrings and Rudolph noses, to reindeer antlers and full elf costumes – the effort from the entire team was outstanding! Even those who didn’t have anything Christmassy to wear gave so generously to such a worthy cause. As a regular outpatient of the RUH Bath, this appeal struck a personal chord with me, as I’m sure it did for others in our team. Being able to show a little bit of appreciation for the tireless work being carried by the amazing staff at that hospital has been a privilege. Let’s hope we can do even better this year.”

Always Doing More

Whether it’s charity bike rides, sponsoring local sports teams, planting trees, or launching environmental initiatives, Integrity has always looked to make a valuable and positive contribution to our local community. We will look to continue our efforts this year, and hopefully make an even greater impact in 2021.

The 2020 Lockdown has presented companies with numerous challenges, but for one part of the Integrity Print business it provided the platform for the final stage of a significant transformation process that led to the emergence of Integrity Connect. This is the new name for the secure laser and mailing division of Integrity.

The journey began in the summer of 2018 with an acknowledgment that, although sales in the mailing division had grown steadily and profitably to £4m turnover, the company was unable to compete effectively with the market leaders in the sector. The business strategy was to accelerate growth to £10m turnover by 2022 and in order to achieve this, there was a need to radically re-shape the division.

Integrity had managed its transactional division using the disciplines and processes that had historically allowed it to run a successful business forms operation. The company used the same people, the same back office systems and the same shift patterns that were applied across its traditional litho print operations. Mark Cornford, Managing Director of Integrity commented: “I was incredibly proud of what we had achieved in our transactional business. We had grown from zero to £4m through sheer hard work and determination. We were good all-rounders but to be the best in your field, you need the best people”

A key first step in the transformation process was the recruitment of Chris Walton, formerly Managing Director of Paragon’s Bristol mailing operation, as Transactional Director. Walton brought with him 25 years of print and mail experience and had been an early adopter of inkjet in the transactional market space.

When asked for his first impressions he said “It wasn’t what I was used to and did feel like a bit of a step back in time. The business had outgrown its existing capabilities and needed to invest in its equipment and processes. But there was an energy about the people and huge ambition from the management team that really excited me. It was a fantastic opportunity to get involved and help deliver a step change in the business offering”

Walton was able to share with the team his vision for the transformation process that would lead to Integrity Connect. He knew from experience the demands of the customers that Connect would have to win to meet the growth targets. It was a case of developing the right culture, processes and equipment that would deliver against these expectations.

The culture change has been driven by a restructuring of the management of the department with a focus on quality control and data collection. Machine outputs and overall shift performances are consistently measured while more visible management on the shop floor was focused on reacting early and communicating clearly with regard to any potential production issues.

There was also more focus on the training and development of individual skills. Historically recruitment was from within, redeploying staff from litho presses and collators to train up on lasers and enclosing lines. The team was strengthened by the recruitment of two experienced enclosing operators who brought a fresh perspective and understanding of client expectations.

External expertise was also used, with two experienced professionals brought in for a six-month consultancy to help evaluate and re-write all of the print and mail  and quality processes, and to mentor and nurture the operations and account management teams.

A high bar was being set, with measurable targets, individual accountability, and operational transparency. Staff were responding to the challenge but felt held back by the working environment and the unreliability of equipment that was coming to the end of its working life.

The next stage of the transformation was a critical one, the foundation was in place, the team knew what was expected from them; they now needed the tools to do the job.

A major equipment review took place, looking at what technology the market had to offer, that ultimately led to a strategic partnership with Canon. After extensive testing and reviewing what capacity was needed to meet the £10m turnover target the decision was made to invest in both cut sheet and continuous inkjet solutions. Three cut sheet lasers and two continuous lasers would be replaced with a Canon i300 Varioprint and a Canon 6700 Colourstream. In addition, a new Nipson Digiflex mono continuous laser was added to the portfolio to support the production of integrated label work, and a Xerox Nuvera MICR laser retained to handle cheque work.

The majority of the new equipment was installed during the Lockdown which actually was an advantage, allowing the team at Integrity time to rationalise the layout of the shopfloor. The production staff were able to switch to flexible shift patterns to effectively manage workflow and training requirements. The first machine to be installed, the Canon i300 cut sheet inkjet, was able to absorb a huge amount of work very quickly to facilitate the rest of the installation process. Overall, the business now has significantly improved production processes with dedicated rooms for printing, enclosing and postal despatch.

In addition to operational changes the breathing space created by Lockdown also allowed the development of the broader support team, with two members of the team qualifying as Prince 2 Project Managers to support the implementation of complex new contracts. The Planning, Software Development and Account management teams were all strengthened in line with the planned growth trajectory.

Commenting on the changes Walton says “We have emerged from Lockdown in incredibly good shape. We have rebalanced the shift patterns and the people are now achieving much greater productivity levels and getting the most out of the new kit. The inkjets are absolute game changers for us, giving us the capacity to produce over 50 million colour images every week.”

The increase in capacity is very timely as the print and mail business is bouncing back post Lockdown with new contract wins and a huge growth in the Clarity Mail business that supports clients who have been working from home.

The move to rebrand as Integrity Connect also reflects the changing services being offered by Integrity as they enable clients to face the challenges of digital transformation and the need to channel shift communications away from traditional print. Andrew Law, Sales & Marketing Director, commented, “The conversations I am having with customers now revolve around how we can help them automate document workflows, provide more personalised communications, integrate online and mobile channels and generally take away business pain for them. As an example, we are setting up a Virtual Post room for one client, because that is what they need now 75% of their staff work from home and can’t handle mail in the way they used to. Print still forms a key part of our clients’ needs but increasingly they look to us to solve a whole range of business challenges around both inbound and outbound communications.”

2020 has been a pivotal year for Integrity. The long-standing ambition to develop and grow into a major player in the print and mail sector has been supported by significant investment in leading edge technology. However, it is the changes in culture that have made ambition a reality. Rebranding to Connect is proving to be much more than just a name change – Integrity Connect embodies the new direction, the new capabilities and most importantly the underlying belief and vitality that has emerged post Lockdown.

Integrity Connect is a client led business that enables organisations to both connect and communicate with their customers and stakeholders efficiently and effectively across a range of channels. The culture is one of solving business challenges, encouraging interaction with the Connect team to build strong relationships and giving clients a real choice in a sector dominated by large corporations.

With a dynamic and diverse range of services to offer, Connect has now truly emerged into the marketplace as a fully-fledged digital customer communications provider.

At the end of July, Integrity Print appointed Martin Clissold as their new Customer Relations Director.

With an impressive background in sales and business development, Martin joined Integrity as General Manager of the Labels Division in 2014. With over 40 years’ experience in the print industry, his knowledge of print technologies and industry best practices have played a key role in Integrity’s development over the past six years.

Following an acquisition in 2009, Integrity’s Labels Division moved from Farrington Gurney to their current Westfield site in Midsomer Norton in 2013. Reflecting on the challenges of this move, Sales and Marketing Director Andrew Law commented:

“Following the relocation of the business, Martin provided invaluable leadership and stability to the Labels Division, helping to deliver consistent growth in this key product area.”

With ambitious growth targets for the Labels Division, Integrity have recruited Jason Burgon to lead the Operations and Service Delivery teams allowing Martin to take on a purely customer-focused role. With a major investment programme taking place it was important to have someone dedicated to building on existing opportunities and expanding the customer base. Integrity’s Managing Director, Mark Cornford, elaborated on his decision to create this new role for the business and why Martin was the person for the job:

“As well as growing our business, I felt there was an opportunity for us to enhance the customer experience and really focus on nurturing the relationships with our clients. We’re not a faceless organisation, we never have been, and this ambassadorial role represents everything that Integrity is about – people! . . . The customer is king, and when they have a challenge that they need us to address, having someone like Martin on the other end of the phone is invaluable. He’s more than just a lovable guy – he is exceptionally knowledgeable, loyal, and extremely dedicated to doing the right thing for our customers. His character is perfect for this role – he’s the best I’ve got!”

As Customer Relations Director, Martin will be instrumental in building and executing business development strategies with a key focus on delivering Integrity’s high standards of customer care. Speaking recently about his new role, Martin explained:

“My goal is to continue developing meaningful, long-lasting, and mutually beneficial customer relationships; to be an ambassador for the Integrity Print Group and the print industry as a whole. We have a great relationship with our customers and helping them solve their business or technical challenges will always remain at the heart of everything we do.”

If you’d like to know about this story or you would like to discuss your print requirements, please call our friendly team on +44 (0) 1761 409200 or leave us a message.