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 What has a
Stationery Department to do with TECHNOLOGY, you ask? A good question, but Martins’ final
technological leap before merging with Barclays is to open state of the art
premises at Birkenhead, which are equipped with the very latest technology
for producing in-house items of stationery and publications. A further phase of building will provide a
regional stationery facility for Barclays, but as with so many other companies
in the twenty-first century, stationery production and ordering is eventually
outsourced. Somewhat fittingly,
nowadays this building is a huge self-storage operation, filled with boxes
and boxes of people’s junk!
Stationery Department Crosses the Mersey
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WHY NOT ALSO VISIT THESE PAGES
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 keeping the branches supplied with stationery is a mammoth task and one
that was becoming increasingly difficult from the cramped Old Hall Street
premises in Liverpool. The new Stationery Department building across the
Mersey in Birkenhead came into operation in December and has been tailor-made
for storing, packing and printing the vast range of stationery. Over 3,000
items are maintained in stock and the staff of thirty-five is kept busy
dealing not only with the annual requisitions from branches but with
supplementary orders which average more than fifty a day. Demand for items of
stationery is uneven and fluctuations are mysteriously unpredictable; this
creates the problem of keeping enough stock on hand to meet branch needs. The
Department does some of its own printing and both letterpress and litho
methods are used. Soon it will have the machinery for personalising cheques.
Already work has begun on a second phase of the building which is expected
ultimately to become a regional Stationery Department for the Barclays Group.
1969 Looking more like a large
cardboard box than a factory, is perhaps appropriate for a Stationery
Department…
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The Duplomat Camera
Orders Department
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Vacuum Counting Machine
Storage and Packing Bay
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Printing Department
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Litho Print Department
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The Staff Canteen
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Internal Processing
Bank staff - just like customers - had their own
mountain of paperwork to contend with, and at a time when computers did
relatively little to lighten the load, many everyday branch processes had
their own stationery to guide the staff. Martins Bank’s Stationery
Departments have provided the following items to order down the years…
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Image: Martins Bank Archive
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Image: Martins Bank Archive
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Image: Barclays Group Archives Ref
1216-2b
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Image: Barclays Group Archives Ref
1216-2c
Image: Barclays Group Archives Ref
1216-2a
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Image: Barclays Group Archives Ref
1216-2b
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