Branch number ten opened in Manchester during the company’s 85th year. 2007 also saw sales of £80m and the launch of a new £1m computer system. The years that followed saw a number of moves and the opening of new branches as the business continued to grow. Revenue also continued to climb with sales hitting £96m on its 90th anniversary year. In this same year, Tim became chairman with Matt stepping up to become managing director. Between 2014 and 2020, the company added a cartonboard and packaging division, moved its head office to Farnborough, and acquired UniBoard and Warren Board. The acquisition of UniBoard (now called Elliott Baxter Ireland) took EBB’s presence out of the UK for the first time. 100 years in business Last year saw the company celebrate a huge milestone of 100 years in business with a gala event in London, not far from where the company’s history began. Revenue has gone from strength to strength with the company recording around £240m in 2022 – over three times its revenue in its 80th year. With the company still a family-owned and controlled, independent paper merchant, it is easy to see why one of its core values is independence. The other three are service, stocks, and staff. Service because EBB runs its own fleet of delivery vehicles across the UK and Ireland to be able to maintain its reputation for reliable deliveries; stocks as the company’s policy is to stock paper and board in real depth locally to its customers to offer maximum choice; and staff which is demonstrated in the fact that the company currently employs almost 300 people, over 80 of whom have over ten years’ service. Over the years, EBB has added more and more to its offering, as Elliott explains: “We offer an extensive range of market-leading paper and board products (sheets and reels) stocked in depth locally, with our fleet of our own delivery vehicles creating a reliable distribution network across the UK and Ireland. “EBB is also a dedicated specialist supplier in commercial print papers, digital (sheet-fed), cut size, and carton board. We only have a small crossover into the sign and display area – mostly on fibre-based products in large-format sizes, for example, ▲ [L to R] Alan Elliott founded EBB in 1922 and son John Elliott joined in 1948 33 www.printmonthly.co.uk Issue 341 - March / April 2023 COMPANY SPOTLIGHT / EBB EBB van timeline 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1980s 2000s 2021 ▼ [L to R] Current managing director Matt Elliott with father and Chairman Tim Elliott at the company’s 100th-anniversary celebration 1922 – EBB was founded by Alan Elliott 280 – members of staff 11 – storage and distribution sites 2022 – 100th anniversary £240m – projected turnover in 2022 4 – generations of Elliotts Statistics
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjM0NDIxOA==