Lurking in Te Puke is a family-owned printing business with a penchant for the historic and an impressive letterpress collection. 

When Reuben Woods from Woods Creative in the Bay of Plenty contacted us about a fantastic collection of letterpress lurking in a family-owned printing business in Te Puke, we knew we were onto a winner. 

Woods also pointed out the company’s old collection of newspaper archives with notes in the social pages, pondering if they were the earliest form of Twitter.

Intrigued, we sent photographer Tony Nyberg to poke around at Qprint and come back with the goodies. 

The business dates back to 1912, when Thomas Herbert Wilsone set up in a building at 153 Jellicoe Street to house the Te Puke Times, which was founded that same year. 

The name changed to Stationery House and later Qprint, which it still is today. The building has been expanded but the foundations and more than 100 years of history have remained intact. 

Fast-forward to 1942, when one Phil Basham bought the newspaper, running it until 1963 when he passed away and his son Dave took over and ran it until it was incorporated with the Bay Sun in 1978. 

In 1997, his son Mark took over, making it truly a family business, and now it includes digital printing but hasnít forgotten its delicious letterpress roots. ?