Celebrating 35 Years!
In December 1986, John and Carol Hope, husband and wife, set up Business Forms Services from a tiny premises in Reading. Known simply as bfs, selling Rollin Type100 printing blankets to business forms and envelope printers in the UK. Their son, Robin Hope, joined his parents in the business 6 months later, followed eventually by their daughter Sarah and son-in-law Paul as well as Robin’s wife Nicky.
In 1995 the company invested in blanket converting equipment and expanded sales of blankets into the newspaper, heatset and sheetfed sectors of print as Rollin blankets became widely regarded as the industry standard in web offset. In 1999 the company rebranded as bfs Pressroom Solutions to better reflect its evolved position within the printing industry as a one stop source of pressroom consumables with an emphasis on innovative, high quality products that last longer and saved their customers money.
In 2007 BFS acquired a rubber roller factory in Suffolk and a year later went into partnership with Westland Rollers, taking over their UK business and becoming a licencee to manufacture Westland rollers in the UK. In 2010 the roller factory moved to a much larger premises and business continued to grow and in 2021 the roller factor will be expanded to enable the rubber roller business to expand further into new markets outside of print.
“We have continued to invest in our business and stayed focused on selling high quality consumables and working with really strong partners that continue to develop new and exciting products as our industry changes, we’re very proud about our achievements and it’s nice to have something positive to say in these difficult times”.