A great night was had by all at the gala awards ceremony for the 2022 Irish Print awards on the 12th of May. Hosted by Alan Shortt, the event was held in the Crowne Plaza, Dublin, and saw the great and the good assembling to toast another busy and successful year for the print industry.

Owner and CEO, Aaron Klewchuk, was present with members of staff from Impro Printing, and as the awards were announced, it proved to be a sensational night for both Impro and Ballyprint, who between them garnered an impressive total of FIVE awards!

Aaron said, “I am incredibly proud of all of our staff. Every member of our 30 strong team helped contribute to every project that won, and receiving these awards is recognition of their commitment to innovation and quality.”

Ballyprint won two GOLD awards, Best Use of Print for our impressive 2022 CMYK+ Calendar, and for Small Printer of the Year. Impro won GOLD for Brochure Printer of the Year, SILVER for Print Finishing, and BRONZE for Sheetfed Colour Offset Printer of the Year – all for The Roe & Co Drinks manual.

Everyone at Ballyprint and Impro would like to thank our valued customers for their continued support, and for bringing us such amazing projects that enable us to push the limits of print – and win awards for our outstanding work!

Roll on next year’s awards – and let’s see if we can top our total!!

Aaron Klewchuk – owner and director of Ballyprint – is a man with a plan! He’s always looking for ways to expand and innovate, so that our businesses – Ballyprint and Perfect Day Print – can offer more and better services to our valued customers. We now have a very exciting announcement to make, as Aaron has stepped in to acquire Impro Printing in Belfast. Impro has been a well established business for over 40 years, and has an unrivalled reputation for top quality sheet fed print. Aaron has ambitious plans to build on Impro’s excellent track record, and aims to triple the company’s revenue over the coming year. Impro will be a fantastic addition to Aaron’s business portfolio, with each company supporting the other in a variety of ways.

With Impro based in Belfast, Aaron has also created a new Managing Director post for Ballyprint and Perfect Day Print – a post which has been filled with the hire of Elaine Hamill, who will oversee the day to day running of the businesses in Ballymena. This will allow Aaron to divide his time effectively between Impro, Ballyprint and Perfect Day Print, where his years of hands on experience are always of great value! Aaron and Elaine have already formed a close working relationship, and Elaine is excited to become a part of the team at such a significant time!

Ballyprint already has close ties with Impro Printing, and we often outsource large print run jobs to the Belfast company, which produces fantastic quality litho printing. As a primarily digital print company, Ballyprint found it more cost effective to send litho print to Impro for bulk jobs. With Impro now a part of the family, this arrangement will continue and expand – with Ballyprint supplying large format printing to Impro’s customer base. Aaron is also implementing a series of investments in the equipment and the building, and the innovative PrintIQ system is being installed to manage workflow. The aim is to build a portfolio of companies which will provide customers across the whole of the country with a vast range of printed products – from large run litho to individual digital prints, and from large format outdoor signage to personalised wedding stationery. With special finishes including foiling, laminating, embossing, die-cutting – and much more – Ballyprint, Impro and Perfect Day Print will cover a huge range of products.

As business grows, so will the headcount. All existing employees have been retained, and a planned recruitment drive will add to the numbers over the coming months. The name too will remain. And as trade steadily grows, Aaron is always looking for new members of the Ballyprint team in Ballymena as well!

Aaron says: “This is a great opportunity for me to try to build Impro into a great B2 house. The two companies complement each other well, one can provide any litho work to the other and Impro can send large format work to Ballyprint. There’s definitely a market for B2 litho. We have used Impro for out work as it’s just 30 minutes up the road. I was not going to start a new sheetfed business from scratch, so this is a great opportunity. It’s a great business, great quality and great service.” Now Aaron is determined that Ballyprint, Perfect Day Print and the latest addition to the family – Impro – will have a great future as well!

Ballyprint are delighted to welcome the latest addition to our hardworking team! Elaine Hamill steps into the new role of Managing Director at Ballyprint, and will be responsible for overseeing the day to day running of our very busy company. This is a key role, and will allow us to maximise efficiency and ensure that we always provide the best possible service. With the recent and very exciting acquisition of Impro Printing in Belfast, Elaine’s appointment will allow our CEO – Aaron Klewchuk – to divide his time between overseeing both the continued expansion of Ballyprint and Perfect Day Print, and his ambitious plans to build on Impro’s impressive past record and establish the company as a leading B2 print house. Our new dynamic duo of Aaron and Elaine are excited at the possibilities ahead for our growing family of companies, which will be working together to provide an unrivalled range of printing services to the whole country – and beyond!

Elaine has an impressive background in the retail industry over the past 30 years, and has spent over 20 years as a retail manager. She was with River Island for 19 years, and for the last 7 years has been in a management position with ScrewFix – we’re very lucky that Elaine will be bringing all those years of experience to Ballyprint!

Elaine is also currently completing a Level 5 CIPD Diploma in People Management – which she describes as something of a challenge, given that she hasn’t studied for anything since taking her A Levels! We’re sure that she’ll pass with flying colours, and look forward to Elaine working with us!

On 6th May 2022, the Irish Print Awards took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dublin Airport. Aaron Klewchuk – along with partner Sarah Connolly of Perfect Day Print – made the journey to the gala event and was proud to once more pick up not only the Gold award, but also the Silver award for Ulster Small Printer of the Year!

The Irish Print Awards aim to recognise the country’s best companies in the print and press sector with over 400 professionals from across the print industry celebrating the best in their industry. The awards cover more than 25 categories – from digital print to laser sheetfed, to labels and much more – the awards represent and celebrate all areas of the modern print industry today.

It was with immense pride that Ballyprint was named yet again as the Ulster Small Printer of the Year for 2021 – winning the Gold award for our work for the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open, and also the Silver award for the complex products we produced for Dram Decks. Representing Ballyprint, managing director Aaron Klewchuk took to the stage to collect the wards with gratitude, as a recognition of the incredibly hard work put in by all the Ballyprint staff to ensure the very best results for our valued customers. These awards also show the benefits achieved by the significant and ongoing investment Ballyprint has made in new technologies – allowing us to offer new and exciting products and print techniques never seen before in Northern Ireland. With the investment a continuing process, watch this space for further exciting news as Ballyprint charts new waters and continues to aim high!

Ballyprint owner Aaron Klewchuk was proud to present the new away kit to Harryville Homers FC for the 2021/22 season. We’ve been involved in supporting Harryville Homers for about 7 years now, and we’re proud to continue such a long standing relationship by continuing our sponsorship.

We love supporting our local community and you’ll see our name on all of Harryville Homers’ training gear, as well as both home and away kits. We wish every success to the team for the season ahead – we’ll be cheering you on, lads!

It’s one year since we first experienced lockdown, as the world reeled under the impact of Covid-19. With restrictions still largely in place and hitting many businesses incredibly hard, Aaron Klewchuk takes time to look back on a rollercoaster of a year, and how having the right equipment – plus a determined outlook – has put Ballyprint ahead of the game.

While many other companies have endured an enforced period of shutdown, Ballyprint has remained active – and in addition to providing our usual high quality print services, we’ve also taken the opportunity during some of the quieter times to upgrade our premises. Aaron explains, “We’ve refloored our whole production area – which was a bigger job than I could ever have imagined – to create a cleaner environment. We’ve also added an extra 1000 square feet of production space to house our latest investment, a 2.6m x 1.6m digital cutting table (pictured above), which joins our other equipment such as the 2 Roland TrueVis VG printers we recently added and a 3rd Heidleberg platen to allow us to increase our foiling capabilities.”

Featured recently on the cover of Irish Printer Magazine, Aaron spoke at length about the lessons he’s learned that have allowed him to adapt his business approach during these tricky times. While others have downsized, or unfortunately gone into enforced closure, Ballyprint continues to make significant investments, taking on the customer base of Belfast-based Fresh Graphics, as well as employing four new staff members. The company also gave something back when they gifted 3 and a half tonnes of surplus paper stock to local schools and charities.

There’s no sign of Aaron slowing down any time soon – “We’ve implemented a workflow system utilising Enfocus Switch with impressive results, and this will be integrated into our next significant investment – a new Management Information and Workflow System created by printIQ. We’ll be the first company in Ireland to partner with printIQ, which is really exciting, and will give us a massively streamlined and efficient automated end to end workflow.”

“And that’s certainly not the end of it! We have another two major pieces of kit arriving shortly which will see the launch of an exciting new business strand this summer. Watch this space… Ballyprint is only getting started!”