Mercia Image Print is a printing business that has been run by Amanda Strong for over 25 years, navigating both good and tough economic times including a recent downturn; Amanda implemented cost-cutting measures during the recession to protect the business and positioned it to take advantage of the recovery, and Mercia is now investing in new equipment and apprenticeships to strengthen its operations for the future.

1. AGENDAAGENDA58 59
Mother of Mercia
For more than a quarter of a century, Amanda Strong has been at the
helm of Mercia Image Print, through good times and bad. She tells
Robin Johnson how her business has emerged from the downturn
stronger than ever and is now investing in the future.
A
manda Strong is a mother of three but
she has another offspring that she de-
scribes as her “fourth child” – her busi-
ness, Mercia Image Print. For more
than 25 years, she has been at the helm
of this Little Eaton print and design company.
Like with any member of the family, you go
through both good times and bad but whatever
happens, you stick together. And that spirit of
solidarity has been key to Mercia’s longevity.
The print industry is perhaps one of the
toughest sectors to be in. During the downturn, a
number of such businesses fell by the wayside as
clients tightened their belts.
Invariably, one of the areas where many re-
duced their spending was on printed marketing
materials. This, in turn, had a knock-on effect on
print businesses but, thanks to Amanda’s stew-
ardship, Mercia Image Print rode out the storm -
and is now reaping the benefits of the upturn.
The downturn struck not long after
Mercia had moved into its current ➤➤P60

2. premises at Duffield Road Industrial Estate, relo-
cating from Perkins Industrial Estate, in Mans-
field Road, Derby. It was April, 2008 and, as well
as investing in new premises, the company had
also spent heavily on fitting it out with the latest
printing equipment.
Amanda recalls: “By the October, the
downturn had started, so the crystal
ball hadn’t worked very well.
When we bought our premises
they were just two huge shells.
There was no office space at
all so we had to pay local ar-
chitects and builders to get
offices built. This was on
top of buying the unit.
“We had spent in ex-
cess of £750,000 by the
time it was all finished.
Alongside that we had
decided to upgrade our
existing B2 press, which
is the larger machine,
and buy a brand new five-
colour Mitsubishi press. It
was a pretty scary time. Nobody knew that the
downturn was going to happen, so it was just bad
timing.”
W
hen the downturn did arrive,
Amanda wasted no time in imple-
menting measures that would help
insulate the business from its im-
pact. She says: “It’s all about cash
flow, which is key to any business. The advant-
age that we had over other companies was that I
managed the financial side and the cash flow on
a daily basis. I evaluated all of my purchase
ledger, negotiating more competitive pricing
and, if needed, changed suppliers to make every
possible saving.
“Employees didn’t have pay rises, some of
them actually took a reduction in pay in order to
help. We were on two shifts a day before the reces-
sion and went back to just a day shift. It was lots
of little things and really tightening up on ex-
penses. It’s being sensible and acting quickly.
You can’t bury your head in the sand and think
things are going to be ok.”
Thanks to her swift action, Mercia got ➤➤P63
Sales director Paul
Ross examines
print quality.
Adrian Hunter
on one of the
presses.
Phil Mitson and
Dan Kinnerley.
Paul Ross and
managing director
Amanda Strong.
Production manager
Matthew Hurst works
on the new laminator.
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3. through the bad times and the impact was min-
imised. Amanda says: “In terms of the down-
turn, it wasn’t as bad as people made out, at least
not for us. The turnover probably did go down by
about 10%. We did see some of our competitors
fall by the wayside and that’s probably because
they didn’t act quickly enough or make those
sacrifices.”
Key to Mercia’s survival was having a loyal
customer base spread across the sectors, includ-
ing public and private.
Amanda says: “We have many local clients
who have stayed loyal to us for years and years
who we work closely with and have a great work-
ing relationship. These include Derby City Coun-
cil and South Derbyshire District Council. For
the past 15 years we have been selling patient
menus to ISS, which supplies the NHS. We print
examination sheets for universities and colleges
all over the UK and Europe. Throughout the
downturn that business remained static so our
bread and butter was still there.
“Thankfully, we had a mix of solid, long-estab-
lished businesses and niche customers that were
immune from the recession. After all, everyone
needs patient menus and everyone needs exam-
ination papers that need to be marked.”
When the upturn finally arrived, Mercia was
in a good position to take advantage, thanks to
the investments it had made before the down-
turn struck.
Amanda says: “We were fortunate when the
recession hit that we’d actually only just made a
huge investment in equipment with a brand new
press so we had everything we needed to secure
us for a number of years.We started to see the
first signs of recovery in 2013 so the downturn
lasted for about five years. It really started pick-
ing up around summer last year.”
T
oday, Mercia, which employs more
than 20 people, has the technology and
capacity to take on a range of print
work. Amanda says: “We do absolutely
everything which is printed on paper.
Obviously, there are some things that are just not
suited to us as the quantity would be too large,
such as newspapers. We can do magazines, bro-
chures, including the designing of brochures,
and print anything from 10 business cards to
1 million leaflets.”
The business also continues to have a good
spread of clients, and not just in the local area.
Amanda says: “Our clients are nationwide. One
of our larger clients is a major leisure manage-
ment company and they’ve been with us for over
20 years. If you go back 15 years they probably
would have supported 40% of our sales, whereas
they now represent about 5% to 7%, which is a
far more comfortable position to be in.”
With the good times back, Mercia is investing
in the business once again. The firm has recently
invested more than £100,000 to buy three new
pieces of machinery. These include a state-of-the-
art B2 Foliant Laminator, which will allow the
company to do all its laminating in-house.
It has invested in a Pitney Bowes Inkjet
Addressing System and Mail Crafter, which will
see the firm able to deliver in-house printing and
mailing and it is also buying a fully automated
plate-maker, which makes the plates for print-
ing, producing a higher definition finish. At the
same time, the company will be investing in
skills by taking on more apprentices.
Amanda says: “Over the past 12 months, staff
levels have increased by 20% and we have made a
huge commitment to the apprenticeship scheme,
both internally and externally. One of our
apprentices, Dimitri Frixou, was this
year named a runner-up in the East
AGENDA 63
➤➤P64
Mercia Image celebrated
25 years in business with a
visit from Mid Derbyshire
MP and Pauline Latham.
Above, cutting the cake
with Amanda Strong.
Below, with Paul Ross.
Call us on 01332 830 552
or email us at info@merciaimage.co.uk
Mercia Image Limited The Sidings Duffield Road Industrial Estate Little Eaton Derby DE21 5EG
Printing with flying colours
At Mercia we pride ourselves on
being different from most printers.
Different because we offer a fully integrated service which includes
graphic design, digital print, lithographic print and print finishing
all under one roof - ensuring all print media has a consistent look
as well as saving precious time and money.
Litho printing is the very cornerstone of Mercia Image and a part
of our heritage of which we’re immensely proud of. We have been
producing high quality litho printed material for over 25 years and
remain Derby’s most established and successful litho printers.
With a wealth of experience and total in-house production, you can
be confident we will deliver an efficient and reliable printing service
for you and your company.
Call us on 01332 830 552
or email us at info@merciaimage.co.uk

4. Midlands Chamber’s Young Business Person of
the year category.
“We also invested significantly in Derby Col-
lege’s When I am programme, which was a great
success. Our commitment to our staff is very ap-
parent. The majority of our senior staff have
been with us for a large part of our 26 years in
business. We are hoping that our investment into
youth also pays off and we get more and more
young people into the industry.”
A
manda believes that the print in-
dustry continues to have a rosy future,
despite the rise of digital marketing.
She says: “I’m not overly concerned
about the printing world. I’m sure
everyone will have their own opinion on that. I
still think it’s got a large number of years to go.
People still like to hold something and look
through it and pick up a nice glossy brochure.
“I think it’s changed a little bit in that people
now want a higher quality product, as opposed to
just a leaflet run. They’re going for something
that will have more impact. If anything, the lam-
ination side of things is coming in house because
we’re getting more clients asking for it. I think
people are spending more on their promotional
marketing side to get a higher quality product.”
Now that the good times have returned, Aman-
da has found she now has more time freed up to
take a leaf out of the book of her clients and get
Mercia’s name out there.
The first step was becoming a Marketing
Derby bondholder. The bondholders support the
efforts of Marketing Derby to attract new invest-
ment to the city. In exchange for this support,
they have access to various networking events
and marketing materials.
Amanda says: “Until last summer, I was in the
office almost 24/7 sat behind my desk. I then
made a conscious decision that we needed to get
Mercia Image Print out there. A lot of people
didn’t know we existed, which is shameful after
26 years in business, but because we had our reg-
ular clients we haven’t really needed to push the
business.
“I really wanted to tell people about Mercia
and it’s story. I’m really proud of the business
and the team that I’ve got and that’s why I joined
Marketing Derby, and it’s been a great success.
We have got so many clients from being a bond-
holder and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed getting out
there and I’ve met some fantastic people in the
Derby business community.”
Her bondholder membership has certainly put
Mercia back on the map and even resulted in a
visit from local MP Pauline Latham, who repres-
ents the Mid-Derbyshire constituency. Amanda
says: “Pauline’s visit last November was the dir-
ect result of a bondholder event we held here,
when 40 companies attended to help celebrate
our 25th anniversary.”
At the core of every successful business is a
dedicated workforce and Amanda concedes that
Mercia would not be in the position it is today
without their contribution. She says: “I’ve got an
amazing team around me. They are so motivated,
putting in extra hours to get the job done. In this
business it’s all about deadlines and there is a lot
of pressure but my workforce is really flexible
and committed. Together, we are looking forward
to even more success over the next 25 years.” ❏
AGENDA64
Above, Mercia Image and
Print managing director
Amanda Strong in the print
room. Below, outside the
company’s premises in The
Sidings, Duffield Road
Industrial Estate, Little
Eaton.
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