Soar Print began life in Onehunga in 1920, then moved to New North Road in 2000. This year, the company is celebrating 100 years of not just surviving, but thriving – in spite of depressions, recessions, world wars and pandemics. 

Founded by Lt Colonel Fred Soar, Soar Print has passed from one generation to the next. Today, the company is run by siblings Fred Soar, Vicky Soar and Jenny Carter. All three learned about printing from the ground up. 

“Some of my earliest memories involve helping out at the family business. I can remember standing on a pile of boxes so that I’d be tall enough to insert spacers between wooden blocks of type. My sisters Vicky and Jenny were also roped into tasks that gradually instilled in us a deep understanding of the art of printing. We all have ink in our blood, inherited from previous generations of Soars,” says Fred Soar. 



Today, Soar Print employs more than 90 people and is New Zealand’s most environmentally-responsible independent print company. The company is fully-certified for ISO 14001 and has reduced greenhouse gases by more than 50% in the last 10 years. Soar is also the first and only offset printing company in New Zealand to hold Toitū Envirocare carbonzero certification.