About Chris Cook Print & Office Supplies

Running their own business together had been the ambition of brothers Chris Cook and Glen Maddison since they began working together when Glen had turned 18.

Chris is 11 years older than Glen and had been in the print trade since leaving school at 16 in 1978. “It had always been an ambition of mine to be my own boss, I always saw myself as a bit of an entrepreneur! then after being made redundant in 1993, my decision was made for me. The company we were both working for at the time relocated to Surrey and Glen went with them for about 6 months.

During this time I sourced some equipment and some premises, and did a small business course at Boston College. In the meantime Glen had decided the travelling to Surrey was too much and joined me on the course, this allowed us to apply for the Enterprise Allowance Scheme Grant which helped us pay the rent each week for a year on our first premises at 96 Main Ridge East in Boston”.

Chris had a second career as a semi-professional footballer with Boston United, and had been with the club for 15 years, earning a Testimonial in 1989/90. He had also scored a goal at Wembley for ‘The Pilgrims’ in the 1985 F.A. Trophy Final (the non-league equivalent of the F.A. Cup Final), unfortunately the opposition on the day were that season’s No.1 team in non-league football, Wealdstone F.C. who went on to win the trophy by 2 goals to Boston’s 1.

Obviously with Chris being quite well known locally it was decided to try and use his name to attract potential customers, not that he was the only footballer in the family, because Glen at this time had started playing for Boston United’s Reserve team and went on to play a handful of games for the first team!

5th December 1993 arrived and Chris and Glen opened the doors of their business to the general public, Chris Cook Print & Office Supplies had arrived!

“We couldn’t imagine where the money was going to come from to cover our wages and all the bills” Glen recalls “but we have gone from strength to strength, and now have 4 full time employees and 2 part time employees working with us, it all seems a long time ago now, but we’ve just celebrated 17 years in business and are looking forward to quite a few more!”.

In 2001 Chris Cook Print & Office Supplies purchased another small printers in Boston, R&S Printers, and following the expiry of their premises lease have now moved in to bigger and improved premises at 94-98 Main Ridge East in Boston. In 2005 we also purchased L.J. Ruskin, a very well known local printers, upon owner Ron Ruskin’s retirement.

Chris goes on to say “We are always looking to improve the business and pride ourselves on customer service, we know we are only a small company but we look after our customers, each customer is a precious customer to us and we will bend over backwards to sort out any problem of any kind”