About Timsons
The book press company. Since 1896.
Thirteen decades of building one thing extraordinarily well: presses that print books profitably.
The works
Everything happens on one site.
Sales, design, casting, machining, assembly, and print testing all happen at the Kettering works. The foundry pours castings from 1kg to 2.5 tonnes; the machine shop finishes them on CNC tooling; every press is erected and print-tested in the assembly hall before despatch.
In late 2024, Timsons became part of the Magnum group — reuniting the brand with Steve Fyfe, who led Timsons North America before founding Magnum in 2009. The result: fresh investment, a reopened apprenticeship programme, and a shared roadmap from press heritage to digital future.
130
years of press engineering
450+
presses installed worldwide
3×
Queen's Award for Enterprise
60
skilled engineers on site
Heritage
A century and a quarter, one address.
1896
Arthur Richardson Timson founds the business in Kettering — repairing shoe machinery in the cellar of his parents' house.
1907
After bicycles and the “Ketterina” motorcycle, the company turns to printing machinery — and never looks back.
1929
The first Timson web-fed rotary press with in-line folding: the ancestor of every press we build today.
1949
The “Wun-Up” business forms press — exchangeable print cylinders, decades ahead of its time.
1950
The first official apprenticeship training scheme. Many of today's senior engineers started the same way.
1970s
The T32 book press becomes the flagship of book printing worldwide — “the sun never sets on Timson Rotary Presses.”
1997
The T48A launches at Print 97 in Chicago: a vertical web line, and three-minute plate changes from the Simultaneous Plate Changing System.
2000s
The ZMR wins the American GATF technology award; Timsons wins the Queen's Award for Enterprise three times. A new foundry pours castings from 1kg to 2.5 tonnes.
2011
A customer's production ZMR sets the world record: 379 make-readies in 24 hours. It still stands.
2024
Timsons joins the Magnum group. UK production secured, investment returns to the works.
2026
The Rotary FlexFold enters manufacture at Kettering.
Timsons
The book press company. Since 1896.
Talk to us about your next press, an upgrade, or support for the Timson press already on your floor.