COMPANY SPOTLIGHT / 2601 28 June / July 2023 - Issue 247 www.signlink.co.uk but I was ordering inks, materials, couriers, organising all the fitting and installation teams, working out everyone’s holidays and lunch breaks, as well as trying to manage the business’ accounts and make sure all our clients were happy, being responsive with quotes, and going out and doing site visits. We now feel that with the production managed successfully, we can add more capacity and add more sales, which is what it’s all about.” With Johnson now freed up more to focus on the business he says the company will be concentrating more on social media, as well as new products such as its wall surface offering. The company has been experimenting and playing around with concrete on a roll from X Stone with the business set to become the UK distributor of the product. Pushing the Limits True to its ‘Creative Print’ ethos, 2601 has been pushing the limits of what is possible in this sector. Most recently, the company completed a roll-out of the visitor shop at Castle Combe using X Stone products with the results creating an impressive industrial look to the site. “We’ve been playing around with different substrates and testing them, illuminating them, putting them outdoors, wrapping logos in them, cutting logos out of them, which we’re enjoying at the moment,” explains Johnson. The way 2601 has bent the boundaries of what’s possible or what has been done before with this product demonstrates the way it approaches work on the whole. Johnson adds: “When it came to us, it was just concrete on a roll, and then we go ‘what can we add to it? And ‘what can we put on it? We’d seen what its capabilities were but we wanted to take it further. “We’re now adding to acoustic panels and V grooving shapes and clients’ logos into acoustic panels. So not only have you got a concrete wall, it’s now acoustic. Those properties and values are now added to the wall.” Johnson says his own team members will even take products home to experiment and find out different ways to add value due to their own interest in the materials. “As a business owner, to have your staff go and try stuff in their own time is just fantastic and it just opens up a whole new world.” As the company evolves and expands its product offering, its own premises are set to grow too. The company is preparing for a mezzanine to be built into its 12-metre-high building. Buying the building the business currently operates from in itself is one of the founders’ proudest moments. “It wasn’t even on our radar to do,” Williamson explains. “It’s been in our goals in general at some point in our lives to own our own business but we got forced into the situation by being asked to vacate the rented property we were in. But it’s been fantastic. “To be able to achieve a commercial mortgage ourselves is amazing and it genuinely changed everyone’s ethos and mentality once we were here. It feels different, even though we are doing the same thing.” Time to Grow Currently, the company is operating out of its 4,000sq ft production room with all machines on one floor. One of the main reasons for putting the mezzanine in, Johnson explains, is to split production over two levels and have space for goods in and dispatch, and to have stock in all the time. “Because a lot of our work requires a quick turnaround, especially for the TV and film industry, we need to keep a high level of stock in, and we need more space,” explains Johnson, adding: “We’re hoping to have it by the end of June.” As well as expanding the premises, the owners have been busy making the building their own and reflecting the many products and services the company offers. This has been done through adorning the meeting space and offices with various wall coverings, from textiles to the new X Stone concrete wall covering, and playing around with acoustics and window graphics. The idea is to create a space that is also a showroom for the company to bring customers in to show what it is capable of. On what he wants people to take away from this article when gaining an insight into 2601, Johnson says: “It’s just to show people that we are not just a printer. Creative Print is our strapline and we provide solutions. We become part of our clients and we’ve got such great blue-chip clients that we’ve become friends with. We want to continue that and grow that. “We are a fun, good team, and we bend over backward for our clients all the time. Our turnaround time on projects is second to none. We do everything and take the stress away from our clients and that’s what they love about us. We want to show them what’s new out there and what we can offer.” Since visiting the company before Christmas and returning in May to find out if anything new was happening (turns out a lot was happening!), the company hasn’t stopped and is constantly adding new products to its offering. This is due to the creative and experimental nature of the team with them constantly looking at how to do more and bend the boundaries of what’s already being done. With that said, we’re excited to see what the company will be doing in another few months’ time, as I am sure there will be lots more to report! To be able to achieve a commercial mortgage ourselves is amazing and it genuinely changed everyone’s ethos and mentality once we were here ▲ A roll-out of X Stone at Castle Combe has transformed the visitor shop
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