VENERABLE Glasgow printer John Watson & Company achieved a near-20% hike in turnover and raised its profits in its last financial year, in the teeth of a double-dip UK recession, as it benefited from boom times in the Scotch whisky industry.
The firm also recruited more staff and paid down debt.
Accounts filed with Companies House, seen by The Herald, show the family business hiked its turnover by 19.8% to £11.6 million in the year to March 31.
The drinks industry accounted for about 85% of John Watson & Company's business, of which 70% was work the firm does for its Scotch whisky clients.
John Watson & Company, which in 2010 made the bold decision to purchase a £3m self-adhesive or pressure sensitive label (PSL) press, increased pre-tax profits to £278,070 in the year to March 31, 2012, from £204,830 in the 12 months prior. After an overall tax credit of £66,997 in the profit and loss account, the firm retained a profit of £345,067.
The company's owner, John Watson, the fifth generation to run the family business, said he was very pleased with the financial results.
He said: "In a double-dip recession, there can't be many companies that have put up their sales by 20%. Profitability could probably still be better, but we are still there. I am delighted to be where we are. I am looking forward to the future."
Forecasting further progress, he added: "We will continue to grow turnover. Last year was not just a one-off."
The average number of people working for John Watson & Company rose to 83 in the 12 months to March 31, 2012, from 75 the year before, bucking the trend in an embattled Scottish printing sector. Mr Watson put the current workforce at upwards of 85, and highlighted potential for further growth in employee numbers on the back of the Scotch whisky sector's continuing growth.
Declaring there was "hardly any" of the major Scotch whisky producers with which John Watson & Company did not do business, he added: "It is very much dependent on where the whisky industry goes. These guys are doing well. We would hope to get a bigger share of that market. As they are taking on more people on their bottling line, we would probably expect to be taking more people on in our printing presses going forward."
Referring to the workforce at the two sites at Townhead in Glasgow from which his firm operates, Mr Watson said: "These are real jobs here. These are not created by some Government quangos. These are real jobs, apprenticeships [and] journeymen."
John Watson & Company's net debt fell from £4.81m to £4.24m during the year to March 31.
The Herald revealed in late 2010 that Mr Watson was ending his firm's 185-year relationship with Royal Bank of Scotland because he had been unable to secure funding from the state-backed lender for the investment in the PSL press.
While hailing John Watson & Company's move to Clydesdale Bank as a great success, Mr Watson said: "I think, like all companies, you don't want to increase your debt these days. Clydesdale have looked after us. I don't think, with any bank, you want to be increasing your debt unduly."
He added: "We have made this huge investment in new technology and [it] is now starting to bear fruit."
Mr Watson estimated about one-third of the labels printed by his firm were now self-adhesive, with the other two-thirds featuring "wet glue".
Mr Watson highlighted the amount of design work in which his company had been involved in producing labels for the drinks industry, and the sophistication of its offering.
As well as printing labels for bottles of Scotch whisky and other spirits, John Watson & Company produces wraps for the tubes and boxes in which these are sometimes sold. Mr Watson said that his company, in addition to its core spirits label business, has a general commercial printing operation which accounts for about 15% of its business. This, he said, prints letterhead stationery for the likes of lawyers and accountants.
Mr Watson, who has been with the firm for 46 years, also highlighted the fact that his two sons, 24-year-old Angus and 21-year-old Sandy, had become the sixth generation to work in a family business which can trace its roots back to 1825.
He said the firm had been printing Scotch whisky labels for the entire time he had been with it, doing work for the likes of Black & White at Stepps in Lanarkshire in decades past, and had built up its brand name and business in this sector.
Mr Watson noted that the firm previously did a lot of printing for electronics giants such as IBM and Compaq, particularly in the 1980s. It saw this work disappear as these companies moved operations out of Scotland, but managed to win other business to replace this.
In the year to March, John Watson & Company did £20,000 worth of printing at no cost for Marie Curie Cancer Care in Scotland, in which all of the firm's employees played a part.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article