ASL Celebrating 30 years

In November 1991 ASL was born. Now celebrating 30 years, ASL is one of the largest independent managed-office services suppliers in the UK. Starting with only 1 office in Great Shelford, Cambridgeshire, ASL now has 9 sites across the UK and provide national coverage.

In the beginning, ASL was initially a photocopier provider. However, over the years ASL has evolved by offering its over 7500 customers a wide range of services such as unified communications, software, IT and production print solutions.

Starting with only a small team of 4, ASL is now proud to have a team of over 165 employees across England and Wales. We are a rapidly-expanding company, recruiting the most qualified, proactive and dedicated staff. ASL have a wealth of experience on their board, combining the knowledge and expertise. Duncan Forsyth joined ASL in 2020 as the Chief Financial Officer, now appointed CEO.

In April 2012, ASL made the decision to introduce additional business resources to provide opportunities for their staff who were looking to develop their careers and gain qualifications. Apprenticeship courses have been introduced over the years and trainees have made a positive impact on the workplace.

Mandy Dunn, Head of HR, believes apprenticeships help to drive the business forward. Apprenticeships enable our business to grow its skills base because the range of courses available is vast. We are not only recruiting apprentices to help business growth but also helping our current employees to enrol in higher level apprenticeships to develop their skills and gain further qualifications.

As part of our growing strategy to become the UK’s largest independent Managed Print Services (MPS) provider, ASL has acquired 13 companies since 2010. The most recent acquisitions are ICA Digital, Prius, Geerings Digital, Reprotec, SmartPrint, Printercare and BM Digital.

In a growing market we find more and more customers are asking for the availability of choice which is why acquiring businesses will provide our customers with new benefits, strengthening our position as the go-to supplier. Also working with all major manufacturers. In September 2021 we became the first Epson Platinum Partner in the UK, further cementing our commitment to sustainable printing solutions.

During this year we introduced a new service called ASL Flex. This service provides flexibility to our customers when there is uncertainty. ASL Flex allows customers to scale up or down to reflect changes in personnel and/or locations, within the agreed parameters.

ASL is an environmentally responsible organisation, and over the years has implemented many policies to reduce ASL’s and its customer’s environmental impact. The concept of sustainability has evolved rapidly and the development needs to consider the present and the future.

Today, we have an active policy that protects the environment and promotes good working practices. One of our most important environmental practices is PrintReleaf, the world’s first platform that automatically converts your paper footprint into actual trees. This initiative is empowering companies to regenerate forests based on their paper footprint. To date ASL has offset the equivalent to 173.2m pages of paper by reforesting 20,796 trees.

Over the years ASL has worked hard to achieve accreditations that recognise our hard work and dedication. This year we have been awarded our ISO9001 and ISO14001 certification to support us in delivering a robust Environmental and Quality Management system across the business. Our latest accreditation is Cyber Essential Plus, further demonstrating to our customers and suppliers our commitment to cyber excellence.

ASL’s mission is to make work flow and most importantly to recommend what is best for the customers business, not ours. Over the past 30 years we have achieved so much and look forward to the continued growth of ASL.