John Sands printing company was one of the largest printers in Australia during the 19th and 20th centuries until its demise in the 1990s. It exercised significant influence on the craft culture of the industry. James Cryer, the printing industry’s curator and ambassador at large comes from a printing family with a lineage that is almost, but not quite, as long and distinguished. He spoke to members of the Sands reunion in Sydney last week.
As the sands of time run through an hourglass, so do the former employees of John Sands remember with pride their time with this company. Sadly, during the 1980s and 90s, the company fell victim to cheap overseas labour and the predations of a private equity company, Textron, which dismantled it bit by bit until this great name shone no longer over the print landscape.
John Sands was one of the largest printing companies in Australia, boasting 1,385 employees at its heyday in the 1980s. This was spread amongst its four divisions - commercial print, web-offset, which printed The Bulletin and the Readers Digest at various times, games, greeting cards and security printing that printed the first batch of Australia's new bank notes, all in one hit, under close watch by the Bank of New South Wales guards!
But to most people these days, the name means nothing, except to the 45 hardy souls who gathered for the Sands' annual reunion last Friday at the OnYork Hotel in Sydney's CBD.
I was honoured to be guest speaker, which had a special resonance for me as the Cryers and the Sands played 'tag team' down through the corridors of printing time in Sydney. Both families and their companies were involved in various ways with the formation of the then, NSW Master Printers Association, later PIAA, around the turn of the last century.
In fairness to Sands, they predate the Cryers by about two decades, as Robert Sands helped establish the MPA back in the 1880s. However both families are represented on various honour boards including the NSW Junior Printing Executives (JPE).
My theme, of course, was how important it is that we try to preserve what we can of our print heritage, and that the PIAA under its new leadership, is doing what it can to recognise and preserve a everything it can, from the honour boards of the different associations, right down to type-chases, technical books. I made the point that some people have donated their old TAFE textbooks!
In the audience was none other than the indomitable, Jack Beynon, the last and long-serving managing director of the company, as well as Richard Sands, a great-great-nephew of Robert Sands, the founder.
It warmed the heart to hear these sprightly young gents recalling with such fervour the good times they had working for John Sands. One of them made the point that “if you worked at Sands you could be employed anywhere -you got such a thorough training as an apprentice.”
I was intrigued to learn that at their Artarmon plant purpose-built to house the four-story Halley-Aller press, which printed the Reader’s Digest, not only did they have a large canteen but even a barber's shop!
Yes, it was a trip down memory lane, but it also reminds us that we have a rich history and usually good employers. The employees were well looked after, often forming lasting relationships and look back fondly at the extended family ethos that permeated the company. Even at this late stage John Sands loyalty is a reminder that printing companies once had that unique capacity to become quite tribal.
Modern bosses can take a lesson from that era: get to know your employees as if they were your own family.
I was delighted to receive several items of historical importance, one being a sepia photo of Sand's 100th Year celebration at Sydney's Trocadero: the year? 1937!
For more information on John Sands, and how to contact former employees, call Peter Giacomelli on 0414 669 781.