FOR more than 10 years a printing factory in Blackburn has quietly produced millions of orders for customers including major record companies and computer giant Microsoft.

We met with up with Mark Ord, managing director of St Ives Print and Display to hear its story, and to learn what the future could hold as the company branches out into new markets.

MOST people have held a St Ives product in their hands, without knowing it.

In recent months the firm has printed millions of paper inserts - containing the track listing and pictures of bands - for artists including Take That, Scissor Sisters, The Killers, Kaiser Chiefs, Sting, Girls Aloud and U2.

And other print contracts have included manuals for Microsoft X-Box games and PC software, along with brochures and leaflets for firms like Innocent, the smoothie drink manufacturer.

The firm, based in Challenge Way, Blackburn, is 10 years old, and now employs 115 people.

When it was founded, in 1997, with 50 staff, it was known as St Ives Multimedia Blackburn Ltd, and formed part of the larger St Ives plc's multimedia division with sites in Tunbridge Wells and Holland.

The original 18,000-sq ft site was within the Philips estate in Whitebirk and was set up to service former entertainment giant Polygram.

At the time the main products were paper parts for the music industry, with Universal Music being the main customer, accounting for almost 90 per cent of the business.

But now the firm is expanding into new markets, and is keen to build on its business producing flyers, catalogues, brochures and magazine for national clients.

And the company, which now has a turnover of about £10million, had an unusual approach to hiring staff which has paid dividends now.

Mr Ord said: "The first employees were deliberately not specifically recruited with print experience. The initial idea was to take on enthusiastic, intelligent people from the local area who would be trained in the various disciplines required for the plant. i.e platemaking, printing and finishing.

"This methodology proved very successful as no employee came on board with preconceived ideas about methods of working within print. This, therefore, allowed best practice' and efficiencies to be investigated without people using the natural we've always done it this way' argument."

Mr Ord himself started at St Ives 10 years ago as production planner, responsible for processing orders through the plant and liaison with customers.

Then he became customer services supervisor in 1999, then production manager in 2001, before being promoted to MD in 2003.

He added: "It is not just myself that has benefited from this policy of internal promotion. All the managers at the site have been promoted from within. We find this to be a very successful policy.

"We have solid internal and external training schemes and systems that ensure we recognise the potential and skills of all of the staff that we employ.

"It is recognised at this site that the most important asset that the company has is not the plant or machinery but the people working for and with us."

In 2002 the firm moved to a new, 26,000-sq ft site, just 200 yards away from the Whitebirk industrial estate, which was owned rather than rented.

This move allowed St Ives to begin expanding its "operations and market places."

Then in May 2004 a 23,000-sq ft building next door was purchased, with £500,000 spent on alterations to improve the way the company worked, with pre-press and press machinery in the orignal site and finishing operations in the new site.

It was at this time that the division of St Ives plc was renamed St Ives Print and Display.

But the company has been forced to evolve with the arrival of new printing techniques, and the changing marketplace which has most recently seen more and more sales of music done digitally, via the internet.

And the firm has also adapted its techniques to become an "ethical printer".

On two years the amounts it sends to landfil has been reduced by 96 per cent, and it recycles all its paper, printing plates, ink cartridges and office waste.

The firm is now accredited by the industry body FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council) and will only print on paper and board that comes from environmentally managed forests.

Mr Ord said: "In the 10 years that St Ives Blackburn has been going we have seen many changes in our market places and in the technologies and capabilities of the plant.

"The site no longer produces print just for the music industry. But we have not seen a reduction in the requirements for print in this sector indeed year on year this requirement has grown.

"It was only a matter of some two months ago that we produced one million paper parts for the new Kaiser Chiefs album and one million for the new Take That album.

"We also have several customers who have a requirement for print related to the games and software industry and this market continues to grow year on year."