The 100th birthday of Soar Print is an opportunity to see how things have changed, both in the print industry and in Auckland. As our business has passed from generation to generation, technology and societal trends have modified what, how and why print materials are produced.
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Orphan’s Hall in Onehunga, Soar Print’s 1920 premises
All in the family, then and now
The original Fred Soar purchased a small Auckland printing business in 1920. It was located in the basement of the Onehunga Orphan’s Hall. The name of the hall had nothing to do with children; it was coined by a group of blokes who weren’t able to join any of the established gentlemen’s clubs in the area. They called themselves ‘the orphans’ and started their own club in this unremarkable wooden building. Fred Soar was one of the so-called orphans.
During WWII, Fred had to put printing aside to work as a full-time soldier in charge of Rotorua and then Ngaruawahia Military Camps. During this time his rank advanced to Lieutenant Colonel and Commander of the 1st Field Regiment. While Fred was away, his wife Edna ran the printing business. Every weekday she biked from Seacliffe Road in Hillsborough to Onehunga, sometimes with a child riding pillion.
Fred and Edna’s eldest son Harry took over the business in 1965, when Fred passed away. By running Soar Print during the day and setting headlines for the NZ Herald at night, he saved enough to invest in new offset printing technology from Germany.
In 1990, all three of Harry’s children came to work in the family business. Fred and Jenny arrived from chartered accountancy; Vicky from the legal sector. While their only experience in the printing industry was from holiday jobs, all three had business skills and experience that were instantly applicable to the print world. Harry Soar died in 2002, after working alongside his children for 12 years. Today, the Soar siblings collectively operate New Zealand’s largest privately-owned print company.
Fred Soar junior with his father Harry in 1970
Print trends, then and now
A hundred years ago, Fred and Edna’s business thrived on producing stationery, invitations, business cards and ferry timetables. These items were typical print requirements for the local community during the 1920s. Fifty years later, Harry Soar’s work was dominated by production of business forms, brochures, labels, packaging and point of sale.
Church Street in Onehunga circa 1956
In 2020, all of these printed products are still produced by Soar, along with many more that were unimaginable in 1920. The ability to produce 3D holographic labels and variable data runs, where every output in the print run is different, would have impressed Harry Soar and his father Fred. And they would have been astounded by the Océ VarioPrint i300 digital press, which prints, trims, perforates, folds and binds in a single process. Blank paper goes in one end, a finished book comes out the other.
One of the biggest technological changes during Soar’s lifetime has been in prepress, which has progressed from hand-set metal type to data files exchanged between computer and press. This evolution has eliminated materials like metal type, metal plates and film; it’s also minimised waste and significantly reduced the carbon footprint of printing.
Printing presses, then and now
Lt Colonel Fred Soar’s pride and joy was his hand-fed platen printing press, which could produce approximately 250 10” x 15” sheets (the equivalent of 250 A4s) per hour. It used solvent-based inks and setup for each run could take one hour. Four-colour printing wasn’t invented until 1923, so Soar Print’s earliest outputs were strictly mono.
A hand-fed platen printing press, similar to the one that would have been used by Lt Colonel Fred Soar
When Harry Soar purchased a Heidelberg GTO press in the early 1970s, following a visit to the Drupa trade fair in Germany, Soar Print took a giant leap forward. This offset press could print around 8000 A3 sheets or 16,000 A4 sheets an hour and setup took around 15 minutes. The arrival of the GTO was the catalyst for moving the company into a purpose-built building.
The Heidelberg GTO offset press that Harry Soar worked nights at the Herald to pay for
Our most advanced press today is the Heidelberg CX102. Compared to similar machines manufactured a decade ago, make-ready time has reduced from 20 minutes to 4 minutes, setup requires 50% less paper and ink, paper waste for the total job is reduced by 80% and print happens at lightning speed – up to 16,500 A1 or 132,000 A4 sheets per hour.
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Soar’s Heidelberg CX102 offset press
Print people, then and now
In 1920, Fred Soar ran his business with just two staff – himself and one printer. After the war, Auckland’s growth spurt allowed Soar Print to expand steadily. When Harry took over the business in 1965, he worked the day shift at Soar with a few employees, and then did a night shift at the NZ Herald as the senior compositor or ‘head stone’. Harry’s hard work helped him to purchase the ground-breaking Heidelberg GTO in 1970, quit the Herald job and work fulltime at Soar. Icing on the cake was moving the Soar Print to a purpose-built factory at 49 Church Street.
Between 1993 and 2020, Soar acquired more than 10 Auckland print businesses that were either finding it tough or had owners ready to retire. Today there are more than 90 people working at Soar-owned companies in Auckland and Hamilton.
Nearly every Soar employee has a training programme on the go and more than 50 printing apprenticeships have been completed at Soar since 1920. Soar Print was named Training Company of the Year at the 2017 Pride in Print Awards.
Print substrates, then and now
Back in 1920, Lt Colonel Soar did most of his printing on imported paper, which was made in the UK. As New Zealand-made paper became available, it’s likely he would have based stock decisions on price and quality. New Zealand Paper Mills Ltd (NZPM) based at Mataura was New Zealand’s only commercial paper mill until 1939. There were no pine plantations back then, so New Zealand paper was made from native timber.
Today, Soar Print is certified for FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) paper stocks. When our customers choose paper endorsed by either of these schemes, they can be confident the wood fibre in the stock was sourced from legal and well-managed forests.
Vicky Soar, Fred Soar and Jenny Carter at the Sustainable 60 Awards
Print sustainability, then and now
The word ‘sustainability’ hadn’t been invented in 1920, but re-using, repairing and upcycling was normal behaviour for everyone – purely for economic reasons. Rubbish disposal, however, was a problem. Print waste would have either been burnt in a backyard incinerator or sent to the dump.
Traditional petroleum-based inks contained high levels of solvent, which evaporates during the drying process, releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) into the atmosphere. Additional solvents were required to clean the printing press after production – adding even more VOCs into the air. These inks were able to leach into the water table when sent to landfill.
Today, Soar Print is New Zealand’s most environmentally-responsible independent print company. We have a fully-certified ISO 14001 environmental management system that maximises energy efficiency and minimises waste. Since 2009, our greenhouse gas emissions have reduced by more than 50%. We are also the first and only offset printing company in New Zealand to hold carboNZero (CertTM) certification as an organisation.
In line with our commitment to New Zealand, Soar has always given back to the community. Both Fred Snr and Harry Soar supported local schools and not-for-profit organisations with pro bono work. This tradition continues today with Soar’s extensive sponsorship programme, which is focused on health charities, community groups and the arts.
Looking ahead to another 100 years
During 100 years of business, Soar has survived the 1930s Depression, World War II, the Wool Bust of the 1960s, the Oil Price Shock of the 1970s, a couple of recessions in the 1990s, the 2001 Global Slowdown and the Global Financial Crisis of 2007. The Covid-19 financial crisis of 2020 (CFC) is another significant bump in the road, however Soar Print is being steered through the challenge by steady hands. We’re looking forward to our 125th anniversary in 2045.
More about the story of Soar.
