When Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s SS Great Western made its maiden voyage in 1838, she was the largest passenger ship in the world.
At that time, Bristol was a booming maritime city playing an important role in England’s tobacco, wine and cotton trades.
Queen Victoria had been on the throne for just one year and an aspiring author known as Charles Dickens had published his first book.
Meanwhile, in a small premises in Bristol, a family had started a printing business.
That company - Taylor Brothers - is still operating in the city today.
Arriving at the grey industrial-style office block in St Anne’s was admittedly not quite the historic setting I’d been imagining.
But stepping through the doors, my eye was immediately caught by the old printing press on display.
“Do you know the litho printing process hasn’t changed since the 1920s,” explains Ian Mountjoy, coming out to meet me. “The technology has obviously changed but all the same processes are still involved.”
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Ian is the sales and marketing director at Taylor Brothers and one of six staff who bought out the company in 2018 after the last family members - Charles and Nick Taylor, an uncle and a nephew - retired.
It’s clear the staff are loyal to the business; one employee, who retired in 2018, had worked at the firm for 50 years.
“There weren’t any natural successors and Charles Taylor [the owner] was keen for it to be a co-operative of working people,” says Ian.
“It is a very long-standing company and we felt it was the right thing to do to keep the business going. It took a lot of hard work to move, but the vision is to keep it going for another 100 years.”
Five of the directors now own 15 per cent of the business, while Nigel Millen, the company’s managing director, owns 25 per cent.
“Charles also has five per cent of the company for historic reasons,” explains Ian.
There are 27 staff based at the St Anne’s site, which produces everything from books and magazines to menus, posters and business cards.
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Taylor Brothers works with hundreds of customers across Bristol including the council, Arnolfini and Hargreaves Lansdown, as well as national and international clients.
Originally based on Broad Weir, where Harvey Nichols is now located, the Taylor Brothers' offices were bombed during the Second World War and the firm was forced to move to Philadelphia Street on a temporary basis.
Last September, the business relocated from Wilder Street after their building was sold off for redevelopment; the company had been based there since 1952.
“Initially it was difficult for everyone to move as the company had been there so long,” says Ian. "But now we've moved we have a much better environment to work in and there are no issues with parking or deliveries.
“We did assume, wrongly, that coming into an improved working environment would be immediately better but until everyone got settled in everyone was in a bit of a flat spin.
“It took a couple of months for people to settle into a huge amount of space."
Try to keep pace with technology is sometimes a bit tricky, admits Ian, who believes the key is “investment and foresight”.
The company has two major printing devices - a digital one and a lithography machine.
The firm recently spent £71,000 on a second-hand digital press, which does all the company’s short-run work such as business cards and stationery.
'We are constantly having to reinvest in new machinery'
On an average month the machine will print between 250,000 and 350,000 items - around 20,000 prints on average a day.
“We are constantly having to re-invest in new machinery,” explains James Shield, the company’s pre-press and digital director.
The litho machine, meanwhile, has cost the business around £1million.
Although it still needs the plates made up, around 80 per cent of the process is now automated.
“The automation means we have virtually no waste and it’s virtually perfect as it’s laser etched rather than done by hand,” says Ian.
But are there concerns around automation causing job losses in the industry?
"We still need people to run these presses - they won’t run on their own. Technology just makes the process more efficient.
“From a quality and environmental point of view it is far more efficient. Everything is used once but everything is recycled.”
Out in the factory, where all the products are cut down to size and packed by workers, Ian points out a machine that looks like it should be in a museum.
It is from 1969 and it’s still used by the team every day. When Ian shows me around, the machine is busy folding menus for a well-known restaurant in the city.
The machine, which was made in Germany, is manually operated by a skilled workman.
It’s these skills - or lack of them - that could become an issue in the future, Ian admits.
“We have schools coming in and doing a work placement and we are looking into apprentices. The industry needs new blood and it is something I am sure we will do in the future.
'The industry needs new blood'
"The sector has been lacking over the last few years and there has definitely been a shrinkage of businesses in the region. In the 60s and 70s the South West was a huge area of printing and now it is tricky to get people in.”
Taylor Brothers has weathered two world wars, countless financial crises and the drive away from a manufacturing to a services-led economy. But Ian is not concerned.
“Charles and Nick were fairly shrewd in their investments and have always invested in the best machinery which has given us an advantage.
“The company has good room for growth. It’s difficult sometimes, but the quality of the service and product has to be at the forefront of what we do.
“Bristol is a thriving city and we are excited about the future - and the opportunity to grow the business.”