WICKLIFFE PRESS LTD.
Well, I’m really not sure where to start. Wickliffe Press has been a major part of my life. I
arrived in NZ late November 1966 with my family. Originally from Southport, Lancashire, my
Father had been brought out from the UK by Wickliffe Press along with quite a few other
English Immigrants around that time.
Wickliffe Press was originally called Wilson and Ratcliffe, and was purchased by Mr T.K.S.
Sidey in around 1945. By 1948 it was due a name change. As 1948 was the Centennial of the
Province of Otago if was thought appropriate to name the company after the original
pioneer ship the John Wickliffe. So the ship was used as the company logo and Wilson and
Ratcliffe then became known as Wickliffe Press Ltd.
I started on 14 December, 1966 as an apprentice
Monotype Operator, producing thousands of
individual pieces of type in molten lead. Also
learning the large 2 section keyboards which
output punched paper rolls, which were then fed
into a type casting machine. The apprentices in
those days spent 3 weeks of the first 3 years of
the 5 year apprenticeship at the Orakei Training
Centre and boarded at the Mangere Immigration
Hostel, fun times.
Wickliffe was ahead of its time, having the very first
continuous business forms web press in NZ, a
Western Gear Speedflex. It used rubber stereos
vulcanised onto a brass plate for printing business
forms and also applying spot carbon. This was all
done at Wickliffe. A Bakelite matrix was created from
the hot metal, and then under pressure a rubber
stereo was created. It was a pretty hazardous process
as the Bakelite gave off formaldihyde gas and the
material contained asbestos, we also used Toluene to
clean everything up. No face mask or rubber gloves in those days. A real no no these days as
the Toluene can cause severe neurological harm, not to mention the asbestos!
Financing for new machinery back in the 60’s and 70’s was provided somewhat by horse
racing. The Sidey family were all keen horse racing people and T.K.S. Sidey owned Kumai, a
successful NZ Steeplechaser. Each time it won we would quite often see some new
machinery arrive at Wickliffe.
Mr T.K.S. Sidey was a lovely man, and took an interest in all his staff. He was born in 1908,
and served as Mayor of Dunedin from 1959-1965. He passed away in 2007, a very fit man,
he was still skiing well into his 90’s.
As time went on the hot metal machines were
phased out and taken over by electronics,
firstly direct onto photographic paper and
eventually to film and now directly onto plates.
Wickliffe at that stage was the forerunner of
digital typesetting and boasted the first fully
digital system in New Zealand, around 1984.
The system (Digiform) was manufactured by
Barco Graphics in Belgium. I was placed in
charge of the system and its introduction.
Consequently I was lucky enough to have 2
overseas trips to learn the system and macro
Bill Burke, myself and Angellica Fessler from
writing. One trip was to Dayton, Ohio and Los
Standard Register’s, City of Industry plant in Los
Angeles, also another trip to Ghent, in Belgium.
Angeles. Demonstrating the Barco Graphics
I remember the Barco system ran 4
workstation, 1987.
workstations, everything was in code, 1 central monitor, 1 printer and a D3500 Formsetter.
All this operated on a system that was 32Mb in total, with 1/4Mb of RAM. We looked at
increasing it to 3/4Mb of RAM at a cost of $10,000, it didn’t go ahead.
Wickliffe was on a high, the presses spent days/weeks on Statement runs for Westpac, BNZ,
ANZ and many IRD forms. The paper store was full to the ceiling with jumbo reels of paper.
We even produced our own carbon paper! There were around 10 large continuous web
offset presses, 4 Collators, several sheet-fed Presses and a full Bindery, Paper Store and
Distribution area. Everything was under the one roof.
Around the late 80’s, Mr T.K.S. Sidey’s daughter, Joy Leslie, took over the running of the
plant. Joy was great to work for, a very fair person, took a great interest in the staff. Under
Joy’s leadership we saw tremendous growth; the factory was working 24 hours a day, 6 days
a week. John Wills was the manager, and John stayed in this position for many years. Both
were well respected within the printing industry and John went on to judge many Pride in
Print awards.
We had some very large contracts in the 90’s the
first of the Census runs, this would take around 2
months to print and collate. The NZ Electoral
Enrolment runs on the 2 newly acquired Xerox
Docutechs (a 6135 and a 6180) in Dunedin and the
Docutech (6135) in the newly purchased
Christchurch Branch. We had 7 days to produce
from the close off of the Electoral Roll to the final
Xerox Docutech 6135
delivered print. Which we did achieved each time.
Zespri Pallet Cards was another, which ran for 2
months, 24 hours a day on the Oce Pagestream, a flash fusion printer, hate to do that now.
Around 1993 Joy’s son Warren Leslie took over the helm. We started to see a few changes in
direction, with the purchase of Think Design in Auckland. Warren saw Auckland as the place
to be, and to get a foothold. Think Design started to produce all of our filmwork as it was a
Pre Press House as well. The films were couriered back the next day. After a short while it
was found to be unworkable, so Dunedin Pre Press was upgraded to meet increased
production. At this stage we had a step and repeat machine for producing our plates from
film.
A little later on we purchased the machinery and client base of Carter Holt Harvey Business
Forms. This was a pretty rough time for myself and other staff at Wickliffe along with the
staff of CHH, as we had to travel to Auckland several times to learn machines and processes
from the staff made redundant. We also had to dismantle the CHH machinery and ship
down to Dunedin.
Work carried on under Warren’s leadership but we could sense a change in how things were
done. Consultants were brought in, some restructuring carried out and ‘the times were a
changing’.
Then came the day that affected everyone at Wickliffe Press, Dunedin, the purchase of
Moore Business Forms. It was April 2006 and the Otago Daily Times announced the next
day, 150 jobs to go at Wickliffe Press. A bombshell for everyone. Over a year or so several
different proposals were put forward, everything to go to Auckland, maybe a small factory
in Dunedin. These options were on and off again which placed people in very stressful
situations as nothing was definite. In the end all continuous offset and collators and
finishing went to Auckland and a small Digital/Sheetfed operation stayed, employing around
15 people, and transferred to the Glenelg St site from which we are still working from. Plus
of course, BlueShip and Customer Services and later Stocklink. This had been a very difficult
time for the then Manager, Steve Conley. Steve had worked at Wickliffe for over 25 years
and had worked with most of the people he had to lay off, I really felt for him during this
period. He managed the transition from Dunedin to Auckland and also the shift to Glenelg
St. He left soon after the moves were completed.
The rest is basically history as Wickliffe found it very difficult to carry on in business in its
present state, in the climate where business forms were rapidly declining and costs
increasing. The complete operation including Stocklink was purchased by Steve and Odelia
D’Souza. Production at Glenelg St is now made up of the 5 remaining staff from the Clyde
Street operation, Toni Berryman (Digital), Gill Macdonald (Bindery), Marina Paterson
(Bindery), Peter Brown (Dispatch/Paper Store) and myself. Most have been with Wickliffe
for many years!
The Dunedin operation is fully digital, with a Xerox iGen 4, C1000 and various high volume
black and white and smaller colour machines. Complimenting this is a finishing department,
Sales, Customer Services and Despatch.
This is a very short overview of my time with Wickliffe Press Ltd, a huge amount has
happened in 50 years, some good, some not so good. Some hilarious, like the Aussie
Platemaker who got drunk one day and pinched the Dunedin Pilot Launch, he was going to
sail back to Australia. They found him asleep, on board the boat in the middle of the Otago
harbour.
However through all the ups and downs the staff always took a pride in the work they
turned out, and the Wickliffe name. I remember the last days of Wickliffe Press in Clyde St
and how the staff worked right to the end with no animosity and still made sure the
remaining jobs were produced with as much care as possible. A great crew!
Garry Porter