Halstan was founded in 1919 when Harold Smith (the ‘Hal’ in Halstan) and his brother Stanley (‘Stan’) started a music pewter-plate engraving business in the basement of their North London home.
The brothers developed a new method of engraving music, embracing the new and exciting technology of the day – photolithography. The Halstan Process was born and this unique stencil method soon became an industry standard for many years. From this, they started printing and book binding which has grown to the business you see today.
Whilst Halstan still retains its heritage and strong links to the music publishing industry, the business has expanded into other markets – books, academic journals, instruction manuals, textbooks, brochures and notebooks which are all produced with the same passion.
Halstan now has manufacturing plants in the UK, Europe and North America, meaning we now offer centrally managed international book production and distribution.
Over the past one hundred years much has changed but today, still being run by the same family who founded Halstan, our core values of innovation, integrity and providing solutions through technology remain constant.