H. Charlesworth & Co. Ltd was founded by members of the Charlesworth family in 1928. Originally, the company's primary function was the printing of sport related material. The Group's core activities now focus on providing quality services to publishers globally.

While still family owned, Charlesworth has evolved into one of the world's leading providers of typesetting, printing and binding to the learned publishing industry, producing journals, books and other publications both in print and electronically.

The Group is currently chaired by L Neil Charlesworth, son of the founder.

A subsidiary company, Charlesworth (Beijing) Information Services Co Ltd (CBIS), was established in 1999 to complement the services offered by those in the UK. Charlesworth's Chinese operations have doubled in size over successive years, allowing greatly increased capacity for low cost, high quality typesetting and data services. CBIS is now more widely known as Charlesworth China.

Expansion in China continued and at the end of 2003 the company relocated to larger premises in Beijing. To add further production capacity and training facilities, a second China office was opened in Langfang just outside Beijing in early 2008.

During the Summer of 2004 print operations relocated to a more environmentally friendly single site alongside Hammonds, the Group's Bindery Division in Wakefield, streamlining production in the UK, improving customer service and creating cost efficiencies. The Group continues to offer comprehensive trade binding services through Hammonds.

Also in 2004, the Group established a sales office based in Philadelphia, USA, promoting services offered through Charlesworth China. In 2006 this became a legal entity under the name The Charlesworth Group (USA), Inc.

Most recently, Charlesworth has achieved ISO 9001:2008 quality accreditation for both UK and Beijing operations, as well as the ISO 14001 environmental standard and FSC/PEFC certification, demonstrating our continued commitment to excellent quality and environmental protection.

Today, The Charlesworth Group is looking better than ever, offering a wide range of solutions to publishers - from typesetting and print to the sale of rights in China. All in all, there really has never been a better time to work with Charlesworth.

During the current global economic crisis we feel it is important that our clients and stakeholders are kept informed of our progress, particularly given the level of uncertainty in the printing industry.

With this in mind we have put together a statement of our plans and activities which demonstrate our stability and commitment to providing relevant solutions and ongoing investment in new technology to enable us to continue to provide unrivalled quality and service at competitive prices. Click here to read more...

Click here to read more about the history of The Charlesworth Group as featured in the recently published book Memories of Wakefield, by one of our clients True North Books.