Bryan Stringer Email & Phone Number

Sherborne, Dorset

I have retired from Digital printing and changed paths to one of enjoying and trading in a life time passion for Edwardian and Vintage cars.I am an avide collector and enthusiast and have a love for pre war cars.

Ghent, Belgium

Bryan was invited to join Esko with the purpose of establishing Esko's position in the Sign & Display industry. Esko were already no.1 in software in Packaging software for both Design and 3D Structures, Flexographic in the world, also a serious force and influence in software for workflow in labelling and commercial print. But in S&D, prior to 2008; Esko was perceived only as reseller of Kongsberg tables and no software influence.With a clear and dedicated vision of the task and a desire to retire at the age of 60, the time spent with Esko has been very successful. Realigning Esko software to met the needs of an industry where margins are still higher than most industries, where consolidation has started to happen, one where there have no standards and no formal education exist.By Esko listening and investing into my experience, beliefs and a understanding of a life time in this industry Esko have emerged after 3 years as a strong leader in workflow, which in turn has lead to massive growth in software and in particular - their table sales. Working with a professional and very personable management team has been a pleasure, but also my thanks to a great software team and all the country managers and staff on a worldwide basis that I have worked with. Also it has been my pleasure to work more with Fespa, also all the major table and printer manufacturers worldwide. I now head for retirement to play (as another business) with my main hobby for many years - Vintage and Edwardian collectable cars, both driving them and buying - so all leads are welcome.

Although settling down to retirement, decided to start another business, still too young to stop and lots of energy.Renewed links and became a reseller for Zund UV printers in the UK, also a specialist supplier of Canvas's and materials from China.Zund made a sudden decision in 2007 to stop manufacturing printers, although the business had stability through material sales, the hardware side had just stopped - overnight!The next 12 months were interesting resulting in a distribution agreement with DYSS in Korea, where the UV printers were aligned with European needs and a new generation of Digital cutters were specified, prototyped and introduced.The business was the European sales and support office for the Koreans, European language, same time zone, knowledge of the industry and working knowledge in digital print and cutting systems.All very good and solid and a good team building. But late 2008 the Dollar rate altered, DYSS put up all their prices and end users could not borrow money, overseas distribution partners had limited resources to fall back on. The recession had hit, hard and fast.After much discussion a decision was made to close the business, over the next 7 months, all staff were found re-employment and distribution agreements were passed on to ensure service and continuity of support. All suppliers paid. A voluntary exercise which was interesting but also sad.June 2009 Planet Media and Planet Digital ceased trading and after 12 months application was made to strike the names from Companies Register. This has now been completed.Again, great people, were involved who have moved on to other successful businesses.

Started with one engineer and brought in one partner - Paul Cobby as the accountant. B&P - Bryan and Paul.Over the next 20 years became the largest UK distributor and Bureau for Digital print.The company had many firsts in the LFP S&D industry with Hewlett Packard, Encad, Scitex, NUR plus many more. A great deal of trading abroad in Europe and USA with many old contacts100% instrumental and led the development of the Zund UV jet, the industries first UV direct to media printer.The company had three divisions, Print (Light Brigade), Consumables and equipment sales. All worked very successfully, these were still pioneering days in Digital printers, great fun, great clients and a lot of respect.In 2002, the structure of the company was changed and 5 key people had been nurtured from within and made directors with the intent to take over the business.2000 -2004 were the strongest years for B&P with 65 people. June 2004, Bryan accepted an offer to hand over the reins and left all running of the company to the new management team.Sadly under new management the company shrunk year on year and ended up in bankruptcy in 2009.All very sad as the company had been very strong, but from the ashes the good people started new businesses which have gone on to be very successful.