Published on January 1, 2022

2021: the year in review

As we approached the end of 2021 and the global pandemic continued to challenge us all, we took some time to look back on 2021 and everything that has happened during the year.

During the first half of 2021, we spent time working hard behind the scenes, talking to our customers, agents and colleagues, involving them all in the development of our long-term sustainable growth strategy.

As you will be aware, we have now rebranded and repositioned with a progressive new brand identity moving from JM Heaford to Heaford, the name our global customers and partners know us by. We hope you like it as much as we do.  This fresh new look gives us a new brand identity in keeping with our core values and diverse range of prepress products.

Our thanks to Julie Graham and the Manufacturers Alliance for such great recommendations during this process leading us to work with local freelance photographer Andy Harrison to update our images & videos along with Banana Moon who supplied our new branded clothing, – we are thrilled with the results.

What followed next was the launch of the new website in July, and what excellent feedback we’ve had, this dynamic new look has been a real success and we couldn’t be prouder! We continue to add news stories, spotlights and customer feedback to the website on a regular basis and encourage you to sign up to our newsletter to keep up to date with all the latest developments at Heaford and in the world of prepress products.  Thanks to the team at Fusion Design for all their work and guidance with the rebrand and website build.

After 8 years as Managing Director, Sally Anne Heaford is now Chairperson with a focus on growth whilst David Muncaster, after five years with Heaford, stepped into the Managing Director role.

In keeping with our new progressive look, we introduced flexible working to help our team ensure they get the best work / life balance whilst ensuring we, as a team, continued to be available to suit varied time zones and support our worldwide network of customers and agents.

We continued to receive  amazing customer feedback throughout the year including messages from Canada Ticket who told us the Heaford AutoMounter has been a game change for them and Dindings Engraving in Malaysia who have had their  Heaford Gravure Proof Press for over 27 years and.  Now that’s what we like to hear!

We welcomed 2 new apprentices – Dylan Cossey, Apprentice Mechanical Fitter and Jake Higgins, Apprentice Mechatronic Fitter as two others completed their apprenticeships and took on full time roles –  congratulations Hakim Ali  and Gwilym Heaford.

As a British manufacturing business with global reach, we never underestimate the value of our partners globally and this year we introduced our Agent Spotlights to celebrate and share their stories.  We will continue to bring these to you every month.

After what has been a great year, despite the Covid complications, we are excited for what lies ahead and would like to thank all our customers, agents and colleagues for their continued support.  Throughout the year our service and sales teams have travelled to our customers across the world when that’s been possible and of course we have continued to ship our products worldwide. We hope to be travelling and meeting with you again soon.  Best wishes for a healthy and happy 2022.