Cheques Still Alive As Security Printer Grows 9%

News headlines may be heralding the demise of the humble cheque as a payment method but Runcorn (UK) company Tall Security Print said its business is booming.

News headlines may be heralding the demise of the humble cheque as a payment method but Runcorn (UK) company Tall Security Print said its business is booming.

The company, which specialises in printing special cheques and credits, has seen its business grow by more than nine per cent in the last year with sales on track to reach around £5 million.

"We had a very successful year.

Part of that success ironically has come from taking on business from some of our former competitors who have pulled out of the cheque printing business," explained Tall Security Print's sales and marketing director Peter Andrew.

"We remain committed to producing cheques and credits to meet our clients' needs but we are also offering a range of secure printing solutions, developing new technology to provide software and hardware that helps counter fraud and improve efficiency," he added.

Tall Security Print was set up in 1991 by a team of directors who now have a combined total of more than 130 years experience in the print industry.

The company is part of the Tall Group of Companies, which also includes Checkprint in Hinckley, Leicestershire.

The group works for more than 25,000 businesses including most of the UK's leading banks, building societies and financial institutions.

Tall Security employs 100 people, having taken on five new recruits in the last few months because of the growth in business.

It has also invested in new presses to cope with increased demand for secure print products it added.

The company has just won a contract to supply 48 million credit slips over the next year and another to print 10.5m every quarter.

And it has just taken over the customer base of Edinburgh-based George Waterston (Security Printers) , a long-standing cheque printer that went into liquidation last October.

Through an agreement with administrators KPMG, all customer history, job bags and associated background information will be transferred to Tall Security Print.

The Tall Group has also signed a technology partnership with Eiger Systems that will enable businesses to provide an efficient electronic remittance advice system claimed Tall.

"This will enable people making payments through BACS - Bank Automated Credit Service - to benefit from a secure, highly functional and innovative remittance system using either email, fax or paper," explained Peter Andrew.

"Up until now, businesses making payments through BACS have not had the opportunity to validate successful transmission of funds and then automatically choose electronic or printed confirmation to recipients," he added.

Tall has also developed a technology partnership with Solchar to jointly promote another new product - the Checkprint Banking Assistant - which captures cheque images and codelines to help businesses work with their banks to improve reconciliation and audit control of cheque deposits commented Tall.

Andrew added: "This is another illustration of how we are thriving.

We are successful because while we accept that cheque use is in decline we specialise in providing our clients with the products they need - be that the traditional cheque and credit books or the latest technology for secure print solutions.

We are leading the way because we as a company are evolving as the industry changes.".

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