A LONG-ESTABLISHED North East printing firm has kicked off a new era by bringing £175,000 of new investment into the business to help support its future development plans.

MTPrint provides the full range of creative design and print services. At the start of the year, the Darlington-based firm came under new management, with the appointment of directors Phil Evans and Phil Harburn alongside chairman Mike Challands following the retirement of long-serving director Stuart Shutt.

To help put their commercial strategies into action, the new team turned to regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers for a £175,000 investment from the Finance For Business North East Growth Fund that NEL administers.

Part of the money will be used to expand the firm’s online presence, including the development of a web-to-print service that could be used by customers in any location and appropriate equipment investments.

Additional focus will also be placed on the company’s five-strong design team, to expand the range and volume of creative services that it provides, and on expanding the contracts that it wins in the local government sector.

Originally set up in 1924, MTPrint employs 16 people and works with blue-chip clients including the Bannatyne Group, Scottish Parliament, North Yorkshire Police, Sodexo and the Society of Maritime Industries, as well as dozens of others across the North East.

Harburn said: “We have a very strong in-house design team and we believe there are many opportunities for us to expand the range and volume of work they do.”