Revolutionary Labels: The Denny Bros Legacy in Multi-Page Labelling

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Founded in 1945 by brothers Douglas and Russell Denny in response to the simple conundrum of where to get dance tickets printed, Denny Bros Ltd. has since grow into an international force in labelling solutions

In the seven decades since the company was first incorporated, Denny Bros has evolved as a family-owned venture that today represents one of the world leaders in innovative labelling solutions across several demanding markets. The business remains today as an independent, family-owned printing business with an ethos underpinned by the strong guiding values of its founders comprising trust, innovation, quality and customer service. Barry Denny, the son of Douglas Denny, is the current Chairman of Denny Bros Ltd, with Graham Denny as Managing Director and his brother, Andrew Denny holding the position of Strategic Development Director.

Having started life as a commercial printing business, Denny Bros has since grown into a company that pioneers the development of innovate labelling solutions, which are commonly employed across a range of healthcare, agrochemical, informational and promotional applications amongst others. During the 1980s the company patented a product known as Fix-a-Form®, which comprises a label with a leaflet or booklet attached. This ‘multi-page’ label enables substantially more information to be provided on pack than a conventional single ply label and features such as braille, tactile symbols and a range of security features can be incorporated. Denny Bros was the first company to develop a product of this type and continues to hold a number of worldwide patents for the application.

“Denny Bros was the first company to produce labels featuring attached booklets and the introduction of this product was fairly revolutionary to our business. Demand was so strong that we struggled to meet demand in the UK. International demand was also building and this led to the formation of Fix-a-Form International Ltd. This company acts as the hub which licences the multi-page label IP to a network of leading international printers and independent leaflet label suppliers in over 50 countries worldwide – demonstrating the impressive growth of Denny Bros Group in terms of both its product portfolio and market presence over the years. The company also has an engineering department and manufactures Fix-a-Form® making machinery, which is subsequently exported around the world,” explains Denny Bros Managing Director, Graham Denny. “We presently have around 20 licensees around the world following the development of the licensing and engineering side of the business and that has since led to the formation of further business being added to the group. The Denny Bros Group is now comprised of ten individual companies, each has its own slightly different niche including our most recent acquisition Richard Ching & Son Ltd who specialise in high quality nameplates, rating plates and signs. ”

Continued investment into the company’s production and distribution capabilities has allowed Denny Bros to grow into a globally trusted leader in bespoke labelling solutions. Its in-house engineering capability has equally played an important role in ensuring that the company is able to continually refine its product and to respond quickly to the needs of its clients. “We invest in the business and its manufacturing capability all the time, which is further bolstered by our dedicated engineering capacity, which allows us to develop custom machinery at our locations on site. We have an engineering team of around 12 people, who are involved in the continued development of our specialist Fix-a-Form machines,” Graham says. “In terms of the company’s other equipment, our production team is always focused on exploring the latest developments in printing and packaging machinery and digital printing is becoming increasingly important, although traditional lithographic and flexographic printing still remain the mainstay. We have invested quite heavily into keeping the company’s equipment up-to-date, as this is very important with our industry.”

With a diversified market base in terms of both its geographic and industrial presence, Denny Bros continues to enjoy strong demand for its innovative products from clients around the world. This is further bolstered by the increasing requirement for information to be present on labels, which are often displayed the same way on products distributed across several regions. “The demand for more information on packaging is something that is ever-increasing. Many of the labels that appear on products are multilingual because our clients tend to like to have a single label that they can distribute to many different countries and hence reduce their inventory. This is particularly true in the markets for clinical trials, which are often global so will require a single label that can be used in different regions,” Graham elaborates. “In terms of market strength, Europe is leading the way in terms of demand with Germany and France each representing strong territories. Malaysia and Australasia also provide strong demand. In India we part-own the license, Unick Fix-a-Form and Printers PLC, and have enjoyed some really positive growth doubling their sales over the last five years following investment in equipment supported by us.”

Despite having enjoyed a rapid turnaround from a small printing business to a globally established enterprise, Denny Bros is showing no signs of slowing down. Demand for its products remains strong and although the market may show signs of future uncertainty, Graham is confident that Denny Bros is prepared to further grow the business over the coming years. “We want to be the leading supplier of Fix-a-Form® leaflet labels throughout the world,” he concludes. “As we withdraw from the EU, the UK as a nation is facing some uncertainty regarding the future of our main export markets, which is something that we will be obliged to face up to, but we are going to take a positive approach and have recently recruited additional export sales staff to take advantage of any emerging opportunities.”

Denny Bros Group
Products:
• Fix-a-Form® (multi-page labels)
• Single ply labels
• Anti-counterfeit & security features
• Patient Information Leaflets
• Fix-a-Form machines
• Nameplate & waymarkers
• Conference facilities