What does a typical day look like for the company? Charles: I start with a seven-mile cycle, which sets me up for the day. After this I spend most of the time at my desk, looking after the administration. With my background in marketing and project management it means that I’ll engage with customers, particularly in the early part of the enquiry process, but I’ll also engage with strategic outreach initiatives such as Ravensbourne University and Hand Engravers Association. Chris: My day is a mix of going through the jobs in the workshop, talking to customers, estimating, and sometimes helping run jobs. Because we offer so many different techniques and processes, nothing is simple. It is rare to have any less than three different elements to a job. This makes the interaction between workers crucial, ensuring that they’re getting what they need to do their job, while making sure that they can pass it on to the next person. Paul: My Day is a mix of talking to clients, new and old, setting up specs for the estimating team to work on, checking up on work in the factory, and catching up with all the staff as I work remotely three days a week. On the days I’m not in the factory I try and get to see our clients to offer an enhanced customer experience. What’s your favourite thing about the company? Charles: Employing and seeing skilled people work, closely followed by watching the hypothetic nature of everything, and listening to a running envelope machine. Paul: The factory space is an amazing mix of modern and older production, from die-stamping to CAD cutting, and letterpress printing to digital foiling. The staff are so much more than print minders, they are artists and engineers who are always coming up with new ideas and techniques to further enhance our service offering What are you most proud of? Charles: Staying true to our roots, whether working with local companies, organisations like Ravensbourne University, East End Trade Guild, Young Persons V&A in Bethnal Green, or even the Olympic Committee in 2012. But what I am most proud of is the book about Baddeley Brothers published ten years ago. It won three top industry awards, not because it was a dry company history but about a family in business demonstrating graft, resilience, creativity, and fantastically skilful staff. We were so fortunate to have a dream team of people working on it, whom I’ll be forever grateful. In To have been producing print for over 160 years, there’s very few companies that can claim that hard times I go back to it and remind myself that no matter how hard it might be now, previous generations often had it harder. Paul: I love being able to show customers around a production space so close to central London, manufacturing in London is increasingly difficult, and to be able to service London (and beyond) so well is something to be very proud of. To have been producing print for over 160 years, there’s very few companies that can claim that. What are your plans for the future? Charles: We are continually looking for ways to produce things – whether it be to realise a customer’s idea, improving practises, or upgrading computer systems. It’s hard to see how AI will impact a business like ours, but I’m sure it is something we need to get our heads around. 62 Issue 362 - September | October 2026 email: editor@printmonthly.co.uk COMPANY SPOTLIGHT | BADDELEY BROTHERS 16: The company currently employs 16 members of staff 23: Based in South Woodford, East London, the business is in its 23rd home 1859: The company as it's known today was formally founded in 1859 1,200sqm: Baddeley Brothers operates from a 1,200sq m premises Statistics ►Blind embossing is a print finishing technique that creates a threedimensional design onpaper or cardstock without using any ink, foil, or colour
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