|
|
A REPUTATION FOR EXCELLENCE
A History of the Glasgow Printing Industry
1 2
3
4
5
6
7
8 9
10
11 12
13
14 15
16
17
18
19 2021
Part Four - Development,
Decline and Development
Collins
soon outgrew the space available at Villafield and in 1976 moved
to a new factory, with a floor space of 288,000 sq. ft, at Westerhill,
Bishopbriggs. After continuing developments in 1989 the company
was acquired by News International, one of its principal shareholders,
and it now has the name HarperCollins. In 1993 the Manufacturing
Division’s output reached 81 million books with a workforce
of 750. A decade earlier, 48 million books were produced with a
work force of 2,300. The production, like most other printers, was
achieved by lithographic printing and non-hot metal composition,
letterpress printing having virtually disappeared, other than for
relief foil blocking, in the last quarter of this century. John
McGavigan & Co., after 100 years in the city, have occupied
a custom-built factory in nearby Kirkintilloch since the mid 1960s.
Their development from screen printing to high-tech manufacture
of illuminated faces of car dashboard instruments such as speedometer,
tachometer, and warning lights has made the company world famous.
Its panels are fitted to 4,750,000 cars, almost one in six of the
estimated world car production. They have a labour force of more
than 300, with a separate technical and research division. They
have recently signed a strategic alliance with US Phillip’s
Plastics which will greatly enhance their performance in world markets.
The firm of Bell & Bain also left its city centre base in Mitchell
Street for Thornliebank and employs more than 100 in the production
of mathematical/ language composition; periodicals; bookprinting;
bookbinding and examination papers, with up-to-date production facilities
for multi-colour litho production. This is significantly different
from the few platens and hand presses used when the firm began in
the city in 1831.
The firm of John McCormick & Co. Ltd was founded in 1890 in
Glassford Street. Like many other nineteenth-century printers it
has remained in the city centre for over a hundred years, more than
sixty of these at their present site in Buchanan Street. The year
1891 set a standard for the firm, which they seem to have followed
since John McCormick Senior won for the firm a bronze medal for
bookbinding in that year, at the Glasgow Exhibition. Ledgers still
remain showing that profit and loss account at the turn of the century
when sales and all outlays, including debts and wages, balanced
at well under £1,000.
McCorquodale (Scotland) Ltd. another firm of international repute,
has been printing in Glasgow since 1840. After nearly 150 years
in the city centre at Howard Street, it has moved to new premises
at Pollokshaws.
|
|
Volume 2 published 1994
Buy a
copy of the illustrated book?
Download a PDF (9.9MB)
|
