Our city is full of surprises and I had not appreciated until last week the head office of the Wyndeham Press Group and its chief executive Bryan Bedson were in Hove.

Wyndeham Press is not the largest printer in the land; it's about No.3 in the pecking order but it is the most interesting. Recently, the company has made a massive investment of more than £20 million in equipment purchases, including a real monster, a 64-page press at ET Heron (one of Wyndeham's divisions).

It is hard pounding for the printing industry and as Wellington remarked at Waterloo: "Let's see who will pound the longest." Wyndeham's interim results showed a small loss for the six months ending September 30, due to exceptional costs of relocating seven of its plants. Debt has risen because of the company's continuing investment in technology.

On a Monday morning I met Mr Bedson. We had an interesting discussion, the only hiccup was when he, a committee member of Sussex County Cricket Club, could not persuade his television set to give us the news of the Test Match. We need not have bothered.

I was told about the group's strategy. The company had always invested in new technology and would continue to do so. Such investment enabled it to maintain a high quality of customer service and remain competitive. Computer-to-plate technology had been installed throughout the group.

Mr Bedson was confident about the future. He said: "In times of recession printers are one of the first to feel the pinch but we will get through.

"I've lived with these problems before. In the present downturn advertising has fallen, meaning pages in some magazines have reduced by some 30 per cent. That's bad news for us. We're paid by the page. But it's not all gloom. We are winning new business and we detect some better trading in our commercial division. We continue to make cost savings."

Mr Bedson told me of the range and scale of work undertaken by Wyndeham's operating divisions. Magazines, bus and railway timetables, government forms, brochures - it was a long list. About 250 tonnes of paper were delivered and left ET Heron every day. That is a lot of paper.

I walked to my car and thought about the company. Yes, I believe it will pound the longest and, when business improves, it will be ahead of its competitors.

Wyndeham is well run and I wish the company and staff a good New Year.