Eagle-eyed football fans may have spotted an unexpected name in the UEFA Cup Final matchday programme. Bishops Printers. A Portsmouth-based print company with customers all over the UK.
With astonishing speed and planning after England’s semi-finals win on Wednesday 7th July, the cup-final print-run almost doubled overnight to nearly 40,000 programmes all to be delivered to Wembley by 9am Saturday 10th July.
Trusting Bishops to deliver with such a tight time frame is a clear sign of the confidence suppliers have in Bishops’ reliability, skills, and print quality.
There wasn’t time for the family printer to wait for the final semi-final whistle either. They engineered a head-start by anticipating an England win. “We ordered in extra paper and metallic blue ink and prepared two sets of printing plates for the final covers – one for a Danish win, one for an English victory” explained Gareth Roberts, Group Managing Director. The day after the semi- final, before most people were back at work, the cup-final covers had already been printed and gloss laminated.
With less than 36 hours to deliver the UEFA Cup Final matchday programme it was plated and printed overnight, perfect bound the following morning before being hand delivered by Bishops’ staff, meeting the tight deadline with a high-quality programme.
The waterfront city of Portsmouth already has a claim to Euro’s fame courtesy of local and England squad member, Mason Mount. Now they have another in Bishops Printers.
While Sunday night didn’t deliver the result we’d been hoping for it doesn’t appear to have dampened demand for the cup final programme. Bishops is currently re-printing another 36,000 copies ready for delivery on Thursday.
