Grace's Guide
British Industrial History
Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 148,160 pages of information and 233,681 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.
Bemrose and Sons
From Graces Guide
of Derby and London
1825 Business established
Became a major producer of railway timetables.
1891 Incorporated as a private company.
1909 George Allen and Sons bought the publishing department of Bemrose and Sons[1]
1922 Combined with Alf Cooke of Leeds and Norbury, Natzio and Co to form a new company, Universal Printers[2]
1972 Universal Printers was renamed Bemrose Corporation[3]
1982 British Printing Corporation sold its near 20 percent interest in Bemrose[4]
1988 Many of the original constituent companies were put into liquidation[5]
1996 Bemrose acquired Charles Letts and Co[6]
2000 Bemrose sold its printing division to its management in order to concentrate on its new business area of promotional merchandise[7]. The company was renamed 4Imprint[8]
2010 Bemrose Booth employed 160 people in Derby, 125 in Hull and 34 in Thornaby on Tees. It was the largest supplier of car parking tickets in the UK and also produced rail and event tickets, phone cards, business diaries and calendars. Became part of the Paragon Group bringing together two two of the largest and most experienced providers of ticket and RFID solutions in the world.
By 2021 Bemrose Booth Paragon, a specialist in magnetic tickets, was trading as Paragon ID