Following the economic hardships of the 1970’s, it was certainly good to see a business flourish in 1980. J.R Reid Printers Ltd had recently moved from Glasgow Road to their new premises at Auchinraith Industrial Estate off Herbertson Street.
They had moved only yards behind their former premises in the old Co-operative building on Glasgow Road, where they had spent the previous 4 years.
The new 4,000 square foot factory and offices, built for around £50,000 was a far cry from the Company’s humble beginnings.
After a spell operating from home (John recently provided me with a photo of the room he worked from as attached!), the one man operation opened up in the former Templetons 300 square foot shop at 110 Glasgow Road, with capital of only £200 in 1973.
Over the years, the firm steadily grew, moving across the road in 1975 to escape demolition and into new premises in the Co building at 109 Glasgow Road. A later demolition order, forced another move.
By February 1980, the firm employed staff of 15 people and had established themselves as one of the main printing outlets in Lanarkshire, producing a wide range of work from thermographic business cards to newspapers.
Around this time, the firm were able to offer a fully thermographic printing system giving clients raised images on letterheads, which proved very popular. Just before this time, Reids had also imported a large 2 colour press from the USA, giving capability of producing 40,000 thermographic letterheads…per day!
From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2019