Ministry Graphics doubles workforce following six figure investment

A Swansea Valley company that specialises in sign and print systems, large-scale graphics for commercial use and interior design, has more than doubled its workforce since it secured a major six figure investment earlier this year.

Ministry Graphics, which previously traded as BOW Design, secured the investment from Ministry of Furniture, the company which emerged from Remploy Furniture in 2014. Since then, it has added four more employees to its workforce including an additional designer, a project manager and a factory manager.

Matthew Anderson, the managing director of Ministry Graphics, says the company’s growth has been based partly on its new relationship with Ministry of Furniture and partly on a greater willingness in businesses to invest in creating more dynamic working environments for clients, designed to help inspire and energise staff.

To achieve this, it has expanded its range of products significantly. In particular, it has developed a new offering in re-manufacturing and upcycling old products, materials and pieces of furniture so they can be re-used.

Quality graphics used on things like vinyl wraps can be used to transform the look of existing furniture and workspaces, an example of re-manufacturing. Equally, some products can be repurposed for a completely different use; for example, it can upcycle old tables into modern-looking lockers, an example of upcycling.

Matthew Anderson, managing director, Ministry Graphics said:

“It has only been a few months since we secured the investment, but we are delighted with the progress that we have made in that time. The order book is growing significantly and we have invested in new employees to keep pace with our growth.

“We are seeing a growing number of enquiries from companies that are starting to view the workplace in a different light. Especially with far less need for physical storage in an age of cloud computing, more companies are working with us to transform their working environment into more stress-free, joyful places to work.

“Also, companies are also increasingly mindful of their environmental footprint and are looking to be sustainable wherever possible. That is, in turn, prompting them to look at re-manufacturing and upcycling, which are things that we are increasingly able to deliver for customers.”

Ministry Graphics shares a factory and other resources with Ministry of Furniture both at the company’s head office on Baglan Energy Park, near Swansea, and in Ystalyfera in the Swansea Valley where the two companies operated from adjacent units prior to the deal.

The two companies complement each other in terms of their offerings with modern workplace, education and leisure space schemes increasingly requiring high quality design and print work; equally, many clients can now benefit from Ministry of Furniture’s interior design and project management expertise.

With latter company’s roots in Remploy Furniture, both companies now have extremely inclusive employment policies whereby they train and accommodate the needs of individuals with learning or physical disabilities.