IN this week’s SME Focus we hear how a niche player diversified successfully as social changes impacted on a core market.

Name:

Lindsay Johnston.

Age:

47.

What is your business called?

Johnston Mailing.

Where is it based?

Hillington Park, near Glasgow.

What services does it offer?

A full range of direct mailing services such as Mono and Colour Laser printing, postcards, envelope insertion, poly wrapping and door drops.

Whom does it sell to?

Our clients come from a wide range of industries, from small companies to large blue chips. Our customers include universities, travel companies and government departments.

What is its turnover?

£2.2 million.

How many employees?

19 full time.

When was it formed?

2004.

Why did you take the plunge?

My brother Scott and my parents decided they wanted to diversify from their first venture, Donation Envelopes Ltd which they started in 1999, and set up a second company which they felt would fill a gap in the market. Donation Envelopes is Scotland’s only manufacturer of Church offering envelopes and the company had invested in a bespoke machine that resulted in quicker production so the positive effects of technology had already been felt. I came on board and we knew we had to use the very best technology in order to make Johnston Mailing a success. We now have two full colour digital presses and two 135 page a minute laser printers with poly wrapping and envelope machines which are the fastest in Scotland. The direct mailing industry is booming and we have continued to expand year on year.

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

I had completed a 24 year career in the Royal Navy as a Flight Test Engineer on Merlin and Sea King Helicopters. I left Glasgow Central station on the sleeper to join the Navy back in May 1984 and I was desperate to be an aircraft engineer.

Flight testing was something that I was drafted into after 20 years as an aircraft engineer, mainly on helicopters including the Sea King and Merlin. Flying in the aircraft was normally something engineers did when disembarking and embarking for deployments across the world so it was great to do this every day. Each squadron has a small number of engineers who are trained to fly with the aircrew to carry out blade tracking, measure vibration and test systems in flight. I was qualified to sit in the cockpit due to simulator training and fly with the test pilots to make sure the aircraft were fit to go to the front line or search and rescue squadrons. After four years of this very enjoyable work my contract with the Navy was coming to an end and it was great to move back to Glasgow to work in the family business.

So many things from my service career have been transferrable to business and ‘civvy street’. In many ways Direct Mail is a team exercise with a tight deadline to meet and a sense of achievement when the mail is collected, whether it’s 5,000 items or 500,000 items. Just in the same way we would turnaround a Search and Rescue aircraft at sea with fuel and crew to get back on task quickly.

How did you raise the start-up funding?

Donation Envelopes provided the majority of the funding with a small grant from the then Scottish Executive.

While church going patterns have changed, Donation Envelopes has managed to keep itself busy by supplying more charity gift aid envelopes where the reduction in weekly envelopes has been felt across all denominations. Being the only manufacturer of weekly giving envelopes in Scotland is quite a niche although we do have a good percentage of customers across the rest of the UK.

What was your biggest break?

Having the chance to work with my dad in the family business, as my resettlement training from the Navy was spent learning about business and finance with the company. His skills and mentoring have ensured that I could be proficient in a very different environment. My father had been in the print trade in Glasgow all his life and was very highly respected.

What was your worst moment?

Keeping the company going through the recession years, from 2008 onwards. I literally had only left the Navy 12 months earlier but we managed to carry on without any loss of staff as things tightened over the next few years.

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

Direct Mail is a very fast paced and reactive operation with turnaround times often being 24 hours as brochures come in one day and need to be fulfilled and out the next.

What do you least enjoy?

It’s strange but we always seem to be busy on a Friday afternoon when it would be nice to start to wind down but we never fail to get the mail into the system.

What are your ambitions for the firm?

Johnston Mailing has now been running for eleven years and in that time we have continued to grow. The volume of work already ordered for this year is the largest yet, which gives you an indication of the strength of this sector. Our plan is to continue this growth and take on more new staff. With regards to Donation Envelopes, we are committed to keeping up to speed with new technology which will allow us to remain a leading player in this sector.

What are your top priorities?

To retain our customers; to remain profitable; to retain our current staff who are a great team; to keep up to date with the latest equipment and processes; to build our brand awareness amongst businesses in the UK.

What could the Westminster and/or Scottish governments do that would help?

I think if they can remain positive about the recovery and keep assisting small businesses via Business Gateway and local council grant assistance for projects, then we will all be able to grow and create new jobs.

We have had fantastic support from the team at Renfrewshire Council Business development whether it was for staff training courses or assist with the move into a larger unit within Hillington, which created three new jobs within the company.

The most helpful thing that the Scottish and UK governments could do for SME’s is to not change rates of VAT or increase taxes for us whilst we try to create jobs and grow during this recovery. Corporation Tax is particularly hefty for small business where keeping up to date with machinery and employing good team of staff is vitally important and profit margins are not immense.

What was the most valuable lesson that you learned?

That good communication with the customer is essential.

How do you relax?

I have just started to learn to play golf which I’m enjoying.