Decorator Profile: Printing at the edge of the map

When Jon Chapman swapped Guildford for Orkney, he didn’t just change postcode – he changed business model and way of life. Now operating arguably the UK’s most northerly garment decoration business, acting editor Benjamin Austin spoke with the man about how printing at 59° North has brought both challenges and unexpected rewards.

We all look for major change in our lives as we wish to shake up the status quo. But rarely do we want a major change in our income.

Yet for Jon Chapman, a want for change caused just that as he decided to upsticks from his roots to start life anew, providing printing services from one of the most northerly regions of the country.

From a base on a remote Orkney Island, Jon runs 59° North, after moving there at the start of Lockdown in 2020.

He said: “literally the day Boris locked down the country was the day we got off the ferry and landed in Orkney.

“But it meant for the next year or so we were stuck here and able to build a big barn from which we could run the business.

“By the time we were ready to do the work, people were heading back to work, and it all met in the middle.”

The relocation

Jon’s roots are in Surrey where, 35 years ago, he started learning his trade as a printer while studying for a different direction at college.

He said: “I was training to be an architect and got a Saturday job at a printer company in Surrey, and then ended up spending half my life printing drawings for architects.

“Then there was a massive recession, so I ended up quitting college and started full-time at the print place. That led to me, after 10 years, thinking I could do a better job on my own, so I set up my own business, and it has grown and shrunk as the market changes.”

“We have had many customers, both big and small, having worked with major car brands and housing brands that people would know, I won’t name them to be on the safe side, but some very fast, red cars and four-wheel drive off-road cars.”

Having grown and shrunk the business several times by the turn of the decade, Jon was looking for a new chapter.

The idea of leaving the South East didn’t begin as a firm plan. “It just popped up – we were in the Highlands camping 15 years ago, and we did a Rightmove search, thinking this is nice, we could live here.

“Orkney popped up, and we didn’t really know where it was, so we came here in our motorhome to have a nosey around.”

“There were some businesses that interested me that were up for sale as well, so we came back to have a look, and we realised we didn’t need to buy anyone else out – we could do our own thing.”

“The house prices were cheap enough to use the equity from houses down south to actually have a decent nest egg to start something new and fulfil your dreams.

Today, the structure is deliberately lean. “Now it is just me working from a building I own next to my house, so there are no overheads apart from the power it costs to run.”

Printing for tourists – and locals

Today, 59 Degrees North is shaped by Orkney’s tourism and way of life.

Jon explained: “It’s very seasonal over here, being in Orkney, so we have seven months of busy touristy times and then five months off in the winter. It is a lovely lifestyle if you can make it work.”

The product mix reflects that. “We print a little bit of everything, but we mainly do seasonal things, so we print onto T shirts and baseball caps. It’s like tourist merch, so we do bottle openers, key rings, water bottle mugs and then a fair few T shirts, polo shirts and hoodies.”

Alongside the print side of the business, Jon also runs a café in which he sells a lot of his products.

He continued: “In the summer, when it’s busy, I’m cooking pizzas and serving customers in the day and then printing shirts and trinkets in the evening, ready for the next day.

“It is a long summer, and we need the long winter to recover.”

However, it doesn’t mean that it all stops in the winter, as the lifestyle calls for long-term planning.

Because of the remote location, sorting an order takes time, and locals are aware of that.

The quieter lifestyle

Jon explained: “We only have Royal Mail on this island. It takes about 10 days for us to post an order to you, so I can’t do anything urgent.”

“The good thing is that, when doing business with people in Orkney, people are aware of that. No one here orders things expecting them to come the next day.”

“I do have a supply of stock of hoodies and shirts here, which means we can get a dozen orders out or so, but if someone wants 100 shirts for an event, they tend to get booked months in advance.

“But people know the other local suppliers are busy in the summer, so they book it in the winter, so it helps keep the wheels going round.”

That slower rhythm extends to sales. “People up here tend to phone in orders rather than buy online,” Chapman notes. “It’s more like what times were like before the internet.”

The same logistical obstacles were also in effect when installing his printing kit, ready to set up the company.

Working with TheMagicTouch, now trading as The Magic Transfer Company, there were logistical obstacle needed to overcome to haul all his needed kit to the island.

Jon said: “They managed to deliver the machine up here themselves. It was a week-round trip for him to install something that is usually done in a day.”

“But the guy loved it, we put him up in a neighbour’s log cabin.

“It was two ferries to get here, but they don’t line up, so you have to have an overnight in the local town, which is on the main part of Orkney. We are on a remote little island, so you have to spend half a day on ferries to get here.

“But he loved it and has already joked about it whenever we’re ready for another bit of kit or need upgrades, he’ll get straight on the next boat.”

A different definition of success

At 52, Chapman is clear that he has no regrets. “I absolutely love it here,” he said.

“It’s got the kind of peace and tranquillity people aim for a bit later in life.”

The winters are tough, as Jon mentions: “it’s just grey and can’t see very far,” but the trade-off is worth it. Mortgage-free living, community trust and a business that fits around life – not the other way round.

For 59° North, success isn’t about scale. It’s about finding a way for printing to work, even at the very edge of the map.