RUGBY World Cup winning captain Martin Johnson found himself in the front row for once as he pressed the button on a Kenilworth company’s £750,000 investment.
Mr Johnson dropped in on printing firm Emmerson Press to put their new digital press which is the first of its type to be installed in the UK, through its paces.
The family-owned company has made the investment in a Fuji Jet Press – the most advanced inkjet digital press on the market – and the man who led England to World Cup glory in 1993 pressed the button set it in motion.
The first job for the new press, which took three weeks to install and is housed in a temperature controlled room, was to produce some specially shot portraits of the former Leicester Tigers lock forward posing with Emmerson staff members.
Mr Johnson spent two hours at the firm in Farmer Ward Road after director John Emmerson arranged the visit as part of a fund-raiser for local school St Augstine’s.
John said: “As part of raising funds for the school, there was the opportunity to have Martin come and visit your place of work. We had just made the investment in the machine – our biggest ever single purchase of equipment – so I thought it would be worth launching it in style.
“Every member of staff had their picture taken with Martin, who then spoke about his time as England skipper and answered some questions from staff.
“And by the time he had finished that, everything was ready for him to press the button and start the printing of the portraits.
“It is a big nerve-racking to have such a formidable presence as Martin waiting to see how the kit performed but I glad to say that it passed with flying digital colours.”
Emmerson Press was founded 35 years ago and employs 30 staff. It has clients in sectors such as education, property, retail, construction and finance.
Mr Johnson said: “I talked a fair bit about the importance of team work in any environment – not just sport, and it was obvious that there is a really good team ethic at Emmersons.
“It was really good to meet the staff team and the level of investment is really impressive – even if was an image of my mug that was first off the new machine.”
