balloon.co.uk
| Business category 1 | Balloons |
| City ( of main office ) | Birmingham, GB, United Kingdom |
| Address | 10 Abbey Road |
| Phones | 44121-420-2040 |
| Fax | 44121-420-1140 |
| About | No matter what the occasion or whoever you are, a balloon will always put a smile on your face. Balloons n things has been established since 1982. The original retail shop based in central Birmingham, England was opened by Colin Renwick of The Kite & Balloon Company. Colin had a well established balloon company in London and wanted to expand, however he struggled to manage both locations due to the distance and the Birmingham business was purchased by the manager Brian Naylor in 1987 and changed the name from The Kite & Balloon Company to Balloons n things. Originally the sales were built on Kites, latex balloons and helium gas hire. As the company became more established the balloon printing side began to expand rapidly and balloons n things purchased it's first offset balloon printing machine. Balloons are not easy to print! Every balloon has to be inflated before it can be printed-this is a complicated process and labour intensive. Compared to current day screen printing the quality of offset balloon printing is very poor, the image fades when inflated and anything not printed with Black ink returns very inadequate results. However, in the 1980's this small offset balloon printing machine was state of art! One of the big advantages of offset print is the drying time. The balloons are printed with such a thin layer of ink that it dries instantly and can be deflated. The current day balloon screen printing machine print thicker ink on the balloon for better quality. The balloon needs to be held inflated for up to 10 seconds whilst the ink dries. Balloons n things was the only company in the West Midlands with 'in house' printing faculties and could turn a print order around in less than 24 hours. The company had discovered a major hole in the market and sales began to grow rapidly all major high street stores and the local council began to purchase printed balloons, helium and ribboned valves. The next step was plate making facilities for the offset machine. This made the process even faster and an order could be turned around in an afternoon! In 1998 after Brian Naylor became unwell Balloons n things was purchased by The Black Balloon Ltd which also traded as Balloon Attack and then later In current times virtually all latex balloons are screen printed. Some company's may have different names for the process but basically the balloons are printed using a screen. The offset method is now outdated and printed balloons can now almost be compared with paper printing. |
| Date | 2011 Oct 29, 00:10 |