Butler, Tanner & Dennis - a new colour printing company is launched in the UK
Butler, Tanner & Dennis - a new colour printing company is launched in the UK
London, 17 July 2008 – Butler & Tanner, the finest colour book and publications printer in the UK, has been bought by one of Britain’s most successful publishers, Felix Dennis, as the sole owner. The brand new printing business is scheduled to open on 1st August 2008 with the new name, Butler, Tanner & Dennis.
A new board of directors will run the company with Felix Dennis taking the position of Chairman. Ian Leggett, Group Finance Director for Dennis Publishing will take up the role of Deputy Chairman and former Butler & Tanner Director Kevin Sarney will become Managing Director. The business will trade from its premises in Frome.
The launch of Butler, Tanner & Dennis will see Felix Dennis and the new management team take the opportunity to protect and build on the 157 year heritage of Butler & Tanner and provide a new beginning and vision for this unique business. Butler & Tanner’s product range has included BBC books for Delia Smith and Penguin books for Jamie Oliver, annual reports for Marks & Spencer and Shell, and corporate brochures for Aston Martin and Rolls Royce. The company has won many awards for its expertise in Book, Fine Art, Corporate Brochure and Digital printing, including PrintWeek Book Printer of the Year 2007.
Felix Dennis is Chairman of Dennis Publishing, the magazine and online publishing company, which launched in 1974 and is currently listed in the annual Sunday Times list as one of the UK’s Top 100 Best Companies to Work For. Over 50 magazines and websites are published by Dennis Publishing, including Auto Express, The Week, evo, Men’s Fitness and Monkey. Felix Dennis is also a best selling poet and chose to print his last volume, Island of Dreams: 99 Poems from Mustique, with Butler & Tanner. The next book of poems from Felix Dennis, Homeless in my Heart, launched later this year, will be one of the first books to be produced by Butler, Tanner & Dennis in August.
The new company will open with 80 former members of staff on site. The management team will be focused on building and developing the Butler, Tanner & Dennis business to ensure deliberate and sustainable growth.
Chairman of Butler, Tanner & Dennis, Felix Dennis, said “It was the superb print quality of my own book, Island of Dreams, produced by Butler & Tanner in 2007, that brought the company to my attention, so we are extremely pleased to finalise and secure the future of this unique printing company. We strongly believe that book and corporate publishers in the UK will seize the chance to reduce the carbon footprint of their publications by working with Butler, Tanner & Dennis, rather than in Asia and other faraway places. We look forward to providing the UK’s publishing industry with a quality colour printer based in the UK.”
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For press enquiries please contact Veryan Dexter, Sarah Locke or Jerina Hardy at Braben on 0207 566 2990 or firstname@braben.co.uk
Notes to Editors:
Felix Dennis is one of Britain’s best known entrepreneurs. The annual Sunday Times Rich List estimates that he is the 101st richest individual in the UK.
A pioneer in personal computer magazines, Dennis also co-founded a $2 billion computer mail order company which eventually went public on the NASDAQ. Felix Dennis launched Dennis Publishing in 1974 and it remains a privately owned company with its headquarters in London.
Dennis’s first collection of poetry, A Glass Half Full, was published in November 2002 by Hutchinson in the UK. It has since become one of the biggest selling books of original verse in England for years. The second book of verse from Felix Dennis, Lone Wolf, was published in October 2004 by Hutchinson in the UK.
In 2006 Dennis published two more books in the UK. How To Get Rich, published by Ebury Press, a distillation of his business wisdom and his third poetry book When Jack Sued Jill: Nursery Rhymes for Modern Times. His fifth book of poetry, Homeless in my Heart, will be published by Ebury Press on 2nd October 2008.
