HistoryThe Early Days...In the mid nineteenth century a young Hampshire lad seized the opportunity of the changing face of Britain following the Industrial Revolution
to take leave of his master and set up his own business. William Hobbs went on to become the founder of Hobbs the Printers. Still in the firm's possession is his original indenture to his master forbidding him to 'haunt taverns,
game with dice, or contract matrimony'!
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From 1884 to the leading edgeNow, over 120 years later, Hobbs continues as a private business in its fifth generation of management and direction by the same family. The transformation from the early handcraft beginnings
to the sophisticated processes of today is the story of the print industry itself. The family business is now a specialist print firm, housed in a large modern purpose built factory and utilising the latest and most efficient plant
and technology available in the fast changing business which was just about "ink on paper". Our current MD's grandfather is at the tiller in the picture opposite, in the full staff outing of 1912. It would require a somewhat
larger vessel to accommodate the 180+ members of staff now.
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