Bezier extends itself "beyond" the norm: With its new services, bezier hopes to become a shining light in these dark economic times, Gordon Carson writes. (Profile).(Brief Article)(Company Profile)

Bezier has taken its "Beyond Print" philosophy to a dangerous level. Customers hoping to be greeted by pictures of grey boxes when they open the firm's new "desire" brochure will be disappointed, for there are none.

There aren't even any photos of smiling minders or gurning customer services staff. In short, it's the complete opposite of what you would expect.

But that's the whole point. "Beyond Print" means moving away from the kit-focused approach that much of the industry has adopted, to a customer-oriented business model. The brochure highlights the top 10 desires from a survey of print buyers carried out for bezier by RSM this year (see box).

The bezier group, headed by chief executive Brian Dudley, was formed after the April 1998 sale of Wace's printing operations to an MBO team backed by [pounds sterling]53m of funding from Electra Fleming.

Its sales dipped last year from [pounds …