The Great British Book Shop

Name

The Great British Book Shop

Website

https://fast-print.co.uk

Company type

Private

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

The Great British Book Shop is a private, for-profit book printing and publishing company headquartered in Peterborough, United Kingdom, with 51-100 employees. It delivers printing services to authors, publishers, and related buyers via its fast-print.co.uk platform.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Book Printing Services

NAICS

Book Publishers (51313), Book Publishers (513130), Books Printing (323117)

SIC

Books: Publishing Or Publishing & Printing (2731), Book Printing (2732)

akta.pro primary industry

Genre & Category Publishing (Romance, Mystery/Thriller, Sci‑Fi/Fantasy, etc.) (MPAJAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

On‑Demand Copy & Print Shops (Walk‑In / Quick Print) (EDAEAJAA)

Keywords

• Book printing services
• Publishing services
• Commercial printing
• Book manufacturing
• Custom book printing

Headquarters

HQ city

Peterborough

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Supply Chain, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Core offering

The Great British Book Shop is a book printing and publishing company operating from Peterborough, United Kingdom, with 51-100 employees. The company offers printing and publishing services for books, serving customers through its website at fast-print.co.uk.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Book printing and publishing services

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Emerging players

• Short Books Ltd: UK independent trade publisher. Comparable to The Great British Book Shop's publishing side as a similarly sized UK-based book publisher operating in the trade market; complementary rather than directly competing on the printing side.
• Lulu Press: Self-publishing platform offering print-on-demand book manufacturing alongside publishing services. Comparable to The Great British Book Shop as a POD and self-publishing-focused operator targeting indie authors, though primarily platform-led.
• Blurb: Self-publishing and book printing platform serving authors, creatives, and small businesses. Overlaps with The Great British Book Shop in print-on-demand book manufacturing, especially for short-run and self-published titles.

Direct peers

• Bell & Bain Ltd: UK-based book printing specialist producing hardback and paperback titles for publishers. Directly comparable in product, geography, and customer base to The Great British Book Shop.
• CPI Group (Carvajal/Williams Lea): A leading global book printing group with substantial UK printing capacity. Compares directly to The Great British Book Shop as a book printer serving trade and education publishers with print-on-demand and offset capability.
• BookPrintingUK: UK specialist in short-run and self-publisher book printing. Closely comparable to The Great British Book Shop in customer segment (indie authors, small publishers) and product (low-MOQ book printing).
• Clays Ltd: One of the largest book printing operations in the UK, producing hardcover and paperback volumes for major trade publishers. Directly comparable as a UK-based book manufacturer offering similar services to The Great British Book Shop, albeit at significantly greater scale.
• TJ International (Printon) Ltd: UK-based book printer with strong short-run and print-on-demand capability. Directly comparable to The Great British Book Shop given overlap in service offering (short-run book manufacturing for trade and self-publishers).

Broad incumbents

• Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP): Amazon's print-on-demand and self-publishing platform. Comparable as a major player offering on-demand book printing and publishing services, though at vastly greater scale and global reach than The Great British Book Shop.
• Ingram Content Group (Lightning Source): Global book distribution and print-on-demand giant operating Lightning Source. Comparable as a much larger, broad-incumbent book printer and distributor with overlapping POD services targeting publishers and authors.

Market position

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about The Great British Book Shop