Printer Profile
‘We started the print as a side hustle, now it's our sole service’
What started as one man’s decision to focus on print services within an advertising agency slowly became the company’s saving grace. Now, KGK Genix only provides print services under its now managing director Graham Pitts, who continues to invest in the company’s future. Assistant editor Benjamin Austin visited its base in Harlow to find out more.
B
efore the turn of the millennium, KGK was a flourishing advertising agency working with clients offering millions for its services. Now, the company is recording some of its highest-ever profits having turned over £9 million last year, but doing so within the print industry.
The shift in focus was not a direct decision but one that inadvertently future-proofed the company as it continues to roll the dice with future investments into both people and equipment.
A foot in the door
The origins of the company began in 1989 with founders Ken and Gail Pitts starting the advertising company in Hertfordshire under its original name KGK. By 1998 their son and now managing director, Graham joined the ranks but was immediately looking for ways to fast-track his status within the business. He said: “I had a few rungs on the ladder to climb but I didn’t want to take the slow road.
“The advertising guys had been in the industry for years so I said what about print?
“We mostly outsourced our print at the start and I was seeing clients talking about their adverts and we’d say why don’t we do some posters for your windows or POS for the stores, so it ended up being a full-service thing. “I wanted to do something that would make me the company expert and build upon it and progress as quickly as I could.” It was a small operation initially with Graham and his two brothers only working with a few HP printers but he was keen to get it off the ground and around 20 years ago KGK bought its first UV printer.
He continued: “We went to Belgium to | 48 | March/April 2025
see the Vutek PressVu 200/600 and at the time they said we didn’t have enough turnover to buy the machine. “We were only earning £100,000 from the print side of the business with the advertising part being very much at the forefront. Dad called this his little side hustle. “The machine cost £180,000 and even though we weren’t earning enough I was confident I could get the work and I wanted to make sure we had the machine to service the clients.” But what started as a side hustle for the business, by 2009 became its primary service as the company’s former advertising clients dried up with the credit crunch and the demise of local press at around that time. Graham continued: “A lot of our clients were based in the subprime mortgage market.
“They went from huge accounts with some as high as £1 million to suddenly dropping to £10,000 to £15,000 and it wasn’t sustainable.”
“To say the print side of the business was to keep me busy wasn’t 100% the
case but it was more I didn’t want to take the slow road but luck certainly played a part.”
Growing the business By 2009 the advertising side of KGK had come to an end with the primary focus being on its printing services mainly in the retail industry.
One of its biggest clients was a Soho-based graphics company called Genix Imaging. By 2014 the owners wished to sell the business as they were looking to retire so it was at this point KGK made another bold investment decision.
Graham said: “They were getting offers from big companies but they didn’t want the clients stripped out and the staff left behind and at the time they were our largest client spending about £1 million a year with us.
“So, we made the decision quite boldly to buy our largest customer which was a strange one.
“Within a three-month period, I went from being the company’s sales rep to being one of its directors.
www.signupdate.co.uk
Directors David (left) and Graham Pitts (right) standing with the swissQprint Kudu
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