Williams Lea Holdings
Williams Lea [1] claims to be the leading global provider of customised Corporate Information Solutions. It employs over 10,000 people worldwide and showed a projected turnover exceeding £750m for 2007.
Williams Lea advises organisations on how to communicate and exchange their printed and electronic information with internal and external audiences. It's business interests and clients are in Europe, the United States and the Asia Pacific rim. The company has centres in London, Dublin, Paris, Bonn, Frankfurt, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Sydney, Hong Kong, Beijing and Chennai.
History
In 1820, John Wertheimer opened a printing business in London that eventually became Williams Lea. For 140 years, the company specialised in foreign language printing. John Edward Lea became a partner in the firm in 1866, and the name is changed to Wertheimer Lea.
In the 1920s, the company printed the first edition of Radio Times. The company's foreign language expertise is used by foreign governments which have offices in London.
In the 1970s, Williams Lea began investing in computer technology, and also began printing for the financial community. Eventually, they became a leading supplier of print to financial institutions in the 1980s. In 1982 they launched the first transatlantic computer typesetting link. Their first outsourcing contract was with Morgan Stanley in 1988. They acquired Springboard Design Consultancy in 1999, as well as a leading litigation support company to enhance them in the legal sector.
They picked up AXA UK in year 2000, a contract valued at £210m over 7 years. In 2002, they established a joint venture in Chennai, India to provide offshore capabilities.
In the 2000's, the company acquired Alistair McIntosh, a print outsourcing/ logistics company based in Yorkshire; Rodber Thorneycroft, a marketing communications company; Bowne Business Solutions, a US market-leader in business process outsourcing to 8 of the top 10 US investment banks and many of the country’s top 200 law firms; Uniscribe in the US; and Creatis in Australia.
Notes
<Williams Lea Holdings Ltd, http://www.williamslea.com/www/en_EU/Infopool.nsf/html/PEngIndex, last accessed 04 March 2008: 21:05/>
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