Catalogue description Mardon, Son and Hall.

Records of Mardon, Son and Hall

Mardon, Son and Hall, Bristol, printers

Received from Mardon, Son & Hall, Printing and Packaging, per Mr. J. Griffith, City Museum

Mardon, Son & Hall was founded in 1846 by James Mardon in partnership with his brother-in-law John Harris. Headed business notepaper provided the firm's initial success whilst expansion into label and packaging printing, allied with a diversification into letterpress printing and the purchase of eight new lithographic machines in 1866-67 provided further growth. Crucial to the firm's sustained growth, however, was its association with W.D. & H.O. Wills which led to Mardon's being perceived as printers to the English tobacco trade. They were one of the first firms to utilise the inserted stiffening card placed in cigarette packets to create the immensely successful cigarette card and soon, Mardon's indispensability to the British tobacco trade saw them become part of the newly-formed Imperial Tobacco Group in 1902. By the beginning of the First World War Mardon's had opened eight new factories, by 1939 employing 5,270 people and, although during World War II nine factories were destroyed, following the war the firm has rebuilt and expanded, during 1979 celebrating the opening of their nineteenth factory.

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