Then a lawyer, he borrowed £5,000 (equivalent to £114,000 or US$142,000 in 2023)[5] to purchase a failing publishing company and renamed it after the town where it was located, St Ives, Cambridgeshire.

[8] St Ives expanded into the U.S. with the acquisition of commercial printer A.D. Weiss in 1989, and then later into European markets with German direct mail firm Johler Druck.

[6] In the 21st century St Ives began a serious decline along with the rest of the printing industry due to the rise of digital media, reporting its first loss in 2009.

[14][15] Also in that year the firm sold all its remaining print operations and rebranded as Kin + Carta, said to represent "connection and collaboration".

[21][22] Kin + Carta describes its purpose as "to make the world work better for everyone", and to this end has adopted a triple bottom line strategy.