The Printed Bag Shop celebrates its 10th birthday!
April 2017 is a very exciting time for the team here at The Printed Bag Shop – it’s our 10th birthday!
Yep, we’ve reached double digits, the big 1-0, a whole decade of supplying some of the worlds biggest brands with the very best in printed bags and packaging, and we’re extremely proud to have reached this milestone.
You may not know this, but The Printed Bag Shop started life in the living room of Craig Smith, our founder and Managing Director. After finding himself unemployed and struggling to make ends meet, he launched The Printed Bag Shop as a way to change his life and provide for his family. Our Craig used to be quite the entrepreneur in his youth; he sold raffle tickets at school and even set up market stalls, so starting his own company was the clear next step in his journey.
Before we had our lovely, purpose-built offices in Killingworth, Newcastle, Craig ran the business from his living room alone. We even dug out our very first order acknowledgement of the first order we processed – check it out below!
Once we were up and running, support from The Prince’s Trust was invaluable to help us grow in the early years. They provided us with a start up loan (which we promptly paid back thanks to lovely customers like you!) and business support. We still have a great relationship with them to this day and Craig has even provided mentorship to young entrepreneurs of the future.
We’re also extremely proud to say that we’ve won some awards in the past 2 years. They include The Pitch, one of The Prince’s Trust Celebrate Success awards and North Tyneside Entrepreneur of the Year in both 2008 and 2009. Not only are these great achievements to shout about, but as our director Craig says, ‘they gave me so much more confidence in running the business, not to mention the fantastic media coverage that winning these awards generated.”
That’s not to say it’s always been plain sailing. The Printed Bag Shop has been through some tricky times but with the support of our customers has always pulled through to the other side. The UK went through a troubling financial recession in recent years and is still recovering from that – though this did have a huge impact on us, we kept adapting our business and giving the best customer service we could, and since then the business has only kept growing and growing.
Speaking about reaching the 10 year milestone, Craig Smith says that ‘I never expected The Printed Bag Shop to reach the levels of growth and success that it has – I only started it so I could pay my bills and put food on the table for my family.
“I couldn’t be prouder of how far the business has come. 10 years is a fantastic achievement; we have worked with some of the biggest brands in the world, including Adidas, Vivienne Westwood and Nickelodeon, have our own purpose-built offices in the North East and a great team helping us take the business to the next level.”
In terms of what the next 10 years have to offer, Craig comments that “The Printed Bag Shop aims to continue improving our products, giving the best customer service in the industry, and grow even further to hit our big target of £1 million in annual turnover.
“I can’t wait to see what the business is like on our 20th birthday.”
If you’d like to find out more about what we do, or ask us for a quote, get in touch! As you’ve just read, we’ve been in the business a while now and reckon we’re pretty good at this printed bag stuff! Just call 0191 268 7555 or email sales@theprintedbagshop.co.uk today.