Here at Belle we work with a range of clients from different industries, and love nothing more than getting to know each company inside out, back to front.  

This month, we caught up with the Collinges. Husband and wife Charlie and Jess Collinge both use Belle – but for completely different businesses.

First up, we’re taking a closer look at what we do for Charlie.

Three generations of talent

The first Collinge salon was opened in 1940 by Wilfred and Molly Collinge. Just a decade later, their son Peter Collinge began working in the hairdressing salon on the RMS Mauretania – a troop carrier returning troops and service personnel home following the end of WW2.

The Mauretania was restored to its former glory as a luxury trans-Atlantic liner on which Peter was invited to stay, joining the team in the ship’s hair and beauty salon. (A salon so swanky, film stars such as Elizabeth Taylor were pampered there.)

Following suit, Peter’s son, Andrew Collinge began his hairdressing career in 1974. And (you guessed it) Andrew’s son Charlie is now Managing Director of Collinge salons. Going from strength to strength, there are now over 160 employees in eight salons throughout the north west.

The only difference? Now there are three parts that make up the Collinge family business:

• Andrew Collinge Beauty – a selection of treatments from trained beauty professionals
• our very own haircare range (CO by Andrew Collinge)
• training courses – we’re an apprenticeship training provider for over 100 local hairdressing salons

How Belle has helped Collinge salons?

Charlie wants each and every person who walks into his salons to have a great experience. It’s as simple as that.

Of course, this means being happy with their hair, but Charlie also wants his customers to notice the finer details they’re likely to interact with on their visit – including printed materials.

Quality at every step

Charlie uses Belle Design & Print for a number of reasons. He says:

“We use Belle for a variety of jobs from large quantities of appointment cards, producing small runs for promotions, to individual posters – we are particularly impressed with the high quality of the digital prints when printing smaller jobs.

“The finishing is of great quality, particularly when we have had more bespoke items produced. Belle have also helped us when we have had tight deadlines and have been able to organise delivery to all our premises quickly.”

In our last project for Charlie, we created a sleeve for a product box. We had to work closely with Charlie to find a solution for how to print onto a net that was too large for printers. 

How can we help you?

From hairdressing salons to football clubs, we’ve created lots of materials for lots of different clients.

Simply get in touch and let us know what’s inspired your printing journey and we’ll give you some recommendations – we’ll even send some samples if you need them.

Try before you buy

We can describe our materials down to the minute details, but the simplest and most immediate way to test the mark of quality is to handle a selection yourself. We recommend trying before you buy to gain feedback from your colleagues and clients.