Rosetown Print changes hands

• Published date: 25 April 2024
• Author: Jesse Wood
• Publication title: Te Awamutu Courier

The Morrises would like to stress that Rosetown Print is not closing — it has been sold to like-minded new owners

Family-run, Tauranga-based Kale Print has bought the business after working alongside the Morrises for many years.

David started his printing apprenticeship in the early 1970s at the Te Awamutu Courier under George Warburton, son of founder Arthur.

“My old man said to me, ‘If you go out and find a job, a trade, then you can leave school’. I wanted to be a mechanic to start with, but printing popped up and I’ve never looked back,” he said.

“We’ve still got two of the original machines that we had down there on [Alexandra St].”

David finished his apprenticeship in 1975, and went on to work at Typecraft in Carlton St.

His retirement 48 years later hasn’t come easily and he has loved his time in the industry thanks to his loyal customers. Ink is in his blood.

“We saw a business advertised in Tokoroa. We bought it, but moved it all up here. David would trek down a couple of times a month as he needed to. Our first client was probably from Tokoroa,” Trudi said.

From there Rosetown Print opened its doors in 1981, where Simply The Best Takeaways is in Sloane St, before moving further down the street to its present site in 1996.

The business quickly grew from a small shop to a large, purpose-built printing factory servicing clients throughout New Zealand

Over the years David and Trudi added to their equipment buying out print businesses as they closed, including the Te Awamutu Courier commercial printing department and Offset Printing.

“In the good old days, I’d have the machine running and I’d go home for tea while the machine was still printing,” David said.

“It’s certainly changed a lot since we started with digital printing, it’s made a huge difference. You can come in for a job and it can be done within four hours now.”

The couple have had many long-term employees over their 40-plus years and Jayne Fortis has been with them for much of that time.

Kale Print has appointed Fortis as its new Te Awamutu branch manager.

“There will now be more possibilities and options for our clients as Kale Print offer a wider range of products. The Te Awamutu office will continue to operate as usual and customers will see very little difference when they pop in to the shop,” Fortis said.

“The team at Kale Print are really supportive and are nice people to work with. We’ve worked with them for many years outsourcing some of our really big jobs there.

“We’ve talked...