Bluett & Co has worked with the print finishing industry for over 60 years, focussing sInce the early 1970s on the automatic stringing and packaging of gift tags, producing single strung tags, wholesale boxes, retail packs and displayers, along with wrapping paper and greeting card retail packs - whatever was required to bring the product to the customer.
After serving its customers since its beginnings in the late 1950s, priding itself on a reputation for fast, competitive and reliable service to the printing industry, the time eventually came to move on from the print side of the company's story. For near on twenty years now, the company has been building another side to the business, the distribution and selling of wine storage solutions under the VintageView brand. With a move to new premises in 2023, the print side has more or less finished, with the wine rack business now the full focus.
This business can trace its origins back to that all but extinct relic of office equipment: the typewriter. This small but vital cog in the machinery of office life has now all but disappeared, replaced by the all powerful computer.
Back in the 1950s and 60s the typewriter could be found on desks in most offices, and it was in the sale and repair of these machines that 'Jimmy' Grant used to start the business of Grant Office Supplies.
From selling a few typewriters to offices in the City of London around the mid-1950s, a small office equipment business was soon building up. While typewriters remained the main product, other types of office equipment were soon added, along with a willingness to supply anything the growing customer base would require.
This gradually led to a few small printing orders, which grew enough to eventually result in the purchase of a printing business: Bluett & Company Ltd. Originally established in 1949, the 1960s saw Bluett & Co take both the printing and office equipment businesses under the one name.
Through it's involvement with a large Greeting Card publisher, the company began to diversify into gift tags. During the early 1970s, the office supplies operation was allowed to tail off, followed by the sale of the in-house printing facilities, leaving the company to concentrate on print finishing and contract packing.
The purchase of automatic stringing machines took the business into its next form, with the growth of the packaging and hand finishing side setting the way forward from the 1990s onwards.
The rise of cheap labour in the Far East saw much of the core business shrink as the world moved into the 21st century. Along with many of the main players in the industry, who either went under or moved their production overseas, this company saw a paradigm shift in the printing and finishing business.
Sadly, 'Jimmy' Grant passed away in 2014 at the age of 89, and now while initially retaining an interest in stringing of tags and packaging for a variety of smaller customers, the core business has now moved to a new field - wine racking and storage under the VintageView brand vintageview.co.uk
This has always been a family run business, taking pride in a reputation for reliable efficient service, and being able to take on a large variety of jobs whenever the need arose. Much of this has been due to our hands-on approach , keeping costs low, but service high. As with those early beginnings, we have always been here to give the customer what they want, with the service and attention to detail that only a dedicated family run business can. We hope this approach will continue to drive the growth of the wine rack business, under the VintageView brand but with the Bluett ethos at its core.
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