Acorn Labels Ltd is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month. Barry Arliss and Simon Warren had previous experience of the fresh produce industry setting up and running Simba Packaging before selling out to Data Label in 1986. After plenty of persuasion, Warren and Chris Bull talked Arliss into starting all over again, and their first job hit the press in October 1994 in a large garden shed in Westwick, Cambridgeshire.

By the spring of 1995 new premises were sought in St Ives as JJ Barker, Albert Bartlett, Eurodix, Albert Vinson and Pratts Bananas among others became customers of Acorn.

Ten years on, and Acorn has since moved again, to an industrial unit on the outskirts of St Ives. A solitary two-colour press has become five of the latest machines, allowing six-colour flexographic printing. The machines run 18 hours a day and most weekends to cope with demand.

Acorn now employs about 25 people although Barry is the only survivor from 1994 as Warren retired in 2001. Sam Heneker joined the squad in 1995 and has come through the ranks to become production manager. And on the sales side, Ben Child came on board in 1997, and is still the first point of contact for most fresh produce customers.

"We prove our worth when our customers find themselves in a spot of bother and need something quickly," said Child. "People remember those moments, and although loyalty is not a word banded about too much these days, we owe a lot to it. It is how we have survived and thrived."

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