BRAMPTON, ON—One of Ontario's newest print operations has a cheeky side. Established near the start of 2013, BMS Printing is under the umbrella of BMS Enterprises, a distributor of adult novelties and toys.

Steven Bannister, president, initially ventured into printing to service his own wholesale, manufacturing and retail operations, which includes the Aren't We Naughty chain of adult-themed stores, a line of sex toys and a manufacturing facility in China.


BMS president Steve Bannister

"We do a lot of product development for the brands in our business, and we wanted to have control over that. We wanted to print everything in house," Bannister said.

BMS Printing is now also open to the general public, and has been printing for companies that are experiencing job overflow. Accounts are handled by partner Craig Rogers, who has more than a decade of industry experience with past roles as a print media specialist at 4Print in Mississauga and as a managing partner at Avid Graphics in Toronto's east side. Another BMS employee rounds out the team, and Bannister plans to hire a salesperson soon.

The company's first equipment purchase was an Océ Arizona 480GT UV flatbed. "I just fell in love with it. The quality was outstanding and it was made in Canada—being able to get service was important to me because I'd never been in the printing business before," Bannister said.

The team spent the first few months of 2013 mastering the machine. "We had to be experts on it before we could go out and get clients and tell them how good the machine is. It takes a little learning to get all the capabilities out of this machine, but we're very comfortable now," he said. "For me, it's like a toy. I feel like I just bought a Ferrari," he said, laughing. He added that he hopes to add a cutting machine within the next year and a half.

BMS Printing is housed in BMS's 41,000 sq. ft. headquarters, and has its own separate entrance so it can operate as a standalone enterprise. The plan now is to rev the Ferrari and really kick business into gear. "A lot of people in this business, their machines are running 24 hours a day, and right now mine is sleeping at night. A running machine is a happy machine," Bannister said.