TIMON Colegrove is not a great believer in convention.Within minutes of meeting him, you realise he is someone who likes to challenge existing views of business, turn them upside down if necessary and work on developing a new model.

It is something he has done with his company, Hunts Paper & Pixels, transforming it from a printing firm into a multi-media business encompassing marketing and web services as well as the traditional print model.

Constantly looking forward, he is reticent when it comes to discussing where he has come from, but in fact he is born and bred in Kidlington having come from a long-established Oxford family which had run Colegrove’s stationers in Turl Street for many years.

And it is Kidlington where his plant is based today, on the Station Field Industrial Estate.

His naturally-rebellious streak stretches back to the time he left Gosford Hill School and took a job at Taphouses Music Shop, in Oxford’s Magdalen Street, before joining a business called the Electronic Dream Plant at Enstone, which gained fame for its Wasp synthesiser, championed by the likes of comedian and broadcaster Kenny Everett.

It didn’t last long, but he was already on to the next thing, at an office equipment firm in High Wycombe which gave him the key skill of selling.

He found himself back in Oxford working as a food porter at Selfridges after losing his job and that led him back to Hunts, the printing firm bought by his father, Michael.

He said: “I was pretty immature in those days... it cropped up at the right time.

“It was before computers, the Internet and the digital age. There was ink in my blood and at the time printing was viewed as a professional service in the same way as accountancy and legal firms.”

Many of the firm’s clients were Oxford colleges, but Mr Colegrove soon put his selling skills to good use to develop the customer base.

It eventually outgrew its Oxford base and moved to King’s Meadow in Osney Mead. With the Internet coming on stream, Mr Colegrove decided to embrace new technology rather than fighting it.

That led to Hunts evolving to eventually become the marketing services business it is today. But print still has a very important role to play.

“Print is a medium that is evolving and changing and is in fact having a renaissance. People are choosing print for beautiful brochures, for example, and it is a great sales tool.

“People prefer their important communications on paper. Sometimes I will look at something on an iPad and sometimes as a hard copy. It is about providing multiple channels.”

Mr Colegrove’s management style is also innovative. He believes the management team should be at the bottom supporting the staff rather than there being a ‘top down’ authoritarian culture.

He has given a lot of thought to it and describes the company values as encompassing “finesse, enthusiasm, engagement and truth”. These are drawn up and every employee has to sign up to this “contract”.

The offices are open-plan and there is even artificial grass on the floor of the meeting room, while a pool table is being brought in for employees.

Mr Colegrove said: “If you look after your colleagues, then everything else falls into place. We don’t need people management or unions.”

The approach works. Last year turnover grew by 10 per cent and is on target for £4.5m this year. The business employs 55 people, with seven workers taken on in the last year including three apprentices.

After 30 years in charge at Hunts, Mr Colegrove, now 52, has been appointed chairman of the Oxfordshire branch of the Institute of Directors. Is this a sign he is finally accepting a traditional role in corporate life? Not a bit of it — once again he is there to innovate.

He said: “The IoD has realised it wants to engage with people with a younger attitude. At the same time it is about leadership excellence, identifying it and allowing it to flourish.”