By Matthew Legg Business editor

Last updated at 15:07, Friday, 18 December 2009

One of Carlisle’s best-known businessmen has wound up his 35-year career in printing to spread the word of God.

Derek House

Derek House, a key figure in the city’s once thriving printing industry, has sold his QIC Print company, at Durranhill, to concentrate on his work as a Jehovah’s Witness.

He becomes a full-time minister in January and will be involved in house-to-house preaching.

The 63-year-old arrived in Carlisle from Cornwall as a teenager in the 1960s.

He formed Derek House Design and Print in 1975 in premises shared with The Cumberland News engraving department on Pack Horse Lane and sold the business in 1992.

QIC Print was founded three years later by his daughter, Stephanie Hunt, and his sister, Lesley Elston, but he returned to take a leading role as they raised young families.

The business quickly outgrew its first premises at Mr House’s home in Scotby. It moved to its present site in Brunel Way in 2001 after acquiring the print business of H&H Group.

The foot and mouth outbreak that year severely dented trade but it bounced back stronger than ever.

Mr House said: “I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in the trade.

“It has changed massively of course, I have had to re-learn the business several times as the technology changed.

“I first set up a part-time waste cardboard business and did full-time preaching.

“I went on to have four children and had to earn a living and I was always interested in printing so I set up a business with a friend doing design and print.

“We worked at Pack Horse Lane with The Cumberland News.

“I learnt so much from them, it was a great grounding. They supplied the plates for lots of printers all over the north. It was quite a good leg-up in the trade, learning the technical side.”

He went on to train hundreds of young printers, including many who went on to work for Cumbrian Newspapers at its Dalston Road print works.

Mr House added: “I sold that business and became a print management consultant and wrote a book on marketing for small businesses, before taking over QIC when my daughter and my sister left to raise their families.

“About a year ago I put the business up for sale on the internet and was appointed as a full-time minister.

“I will spend most of my time calling back on people who have shown an interest in regular Bible discussions.

“People are receptive to a knock on the door, though there is a lot more scepticism about religion and the existence of God now.

“It is about people finding the real meaning of life. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t have a creed, we have no special beliefs, we just believe purely in The Bible.

“I love talking about creation and trying to counteract evolutionary beliefs.

“There are a lot of things presented as fact by people like Richard Dawkins which, I think, are far from fact. I can’t wait to get started.”

First published at 14:08, Friday, 18 December 2009
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk