In 1982, Tim Honnor was a Submarine Commander in the Royal Navy. It wasn't him who sank the Belgrano, but he knows the man who did and believes his action shortened the war by months and saved hundreds of lives on both sides. Nowadays, most Fridays he's to be found gathering scrap whisky cartons at the back doors of off-licences in the little Scottish seaside town of Nairn, near Inverness – to the great relief of most of Her Britannic Majesty's ambassadors around the world.

Those whisky cartons will eventually end up on the ambassadors' desks, usually courtesy of the diplomatic bag, containing important diplomatic papers such as invitations to garden and cocktail parties for every government minister and ambassador in their host country, and – more importantly – their wives.

'I began printing when I was still in the Navy,' Mr Honnor explained as we sat in his bright, airy printworks close to the old harbour in Nairn. 'In 1972, while I was on the teaching staff at the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, a fellow staff member showed me the Adana press which he used to print on as a hobby.' 'I became interested, bought my own Adana and began printing material for friends as a means of unwinding at the end of a day's work. I found it tremendously relaxing after my Navy duties at Dartmouth, and later at Bath and the Admiralty in London.'

'When I retired from the Navy in 1983, I was looking for a job which would support my wife and family and decided to go into printing. All the careers advisers tell you not to turn your hobby into a job, but I didn't fancy any of the suggestions they made and printing was the only worthwhile trade I knew.'

He went to college in Exeter and took a diploma in printing and book production to gain the necessary grounding in business printing. It was then that he decided to go in for high quality engraving and die-stamping. Finding a home posed no problem. His wife, Janet, is a direct descendant of Duncan Forbes of Culloden, Scotland's most senior judge at the time of the battle fought over his land in 1746 by Bonnie Prince Charlie and 'Butcher' Cumberland. On a small croft a few hundred yards from the battlefield, the Honnors built a new home.

'Besides the house, I built space for a small Heidelberg and a litho,' Mr Honnor continues. 'When I started The Piccolo Press in 1985 there were very few engravers and die-stampers left, particularly in Scotland. By the beginning of this year, the number had dwindled to two and since Ponton's of Glasgow went out of business a few months ago, there has just been me. I've bought some of Ponton's best machinery to expand my own capacity.'

'At first I worked on my own, but five years ago I had the good fortune to find John Sinclair who had been an apprentice compositor at the Inverness Courier in its hot metal days. He moved on to building oil platforms at Ardersier when electronic technology took over at the Courier. He's a brilliant printer and absolutely meticulous. My other printers are Steven Main and Gordon Gourdie, who left the Royal Scots last year after doing some printing in the Army.'

John Sinclair hand-sets type for a new order

But Piccolo's breakthrough was slow to come, until a friend of Mr Honnor, who was serving as a naval attaché in Moscow, asked if he could print some engraved invitations.

The word spread and more orders rolled in. Other Naval, Army and Air Force officers in embassies around the world learned of the business and it was not long before the ambassadors began joining the queue.

It was clearly important for the finished invitation cards to arrive at their destination in first-class condition, and it was here that Mr Honnor found the value of the cardboard whisky cases his local off-licences threw out each week.

'I needed strong packaging that would stand up to long distance travel and rough handling,' he says. 'Whisky cartons are ideal – they're strong and durable to protect the bottles, yet are a handy size for loading and carrying. Queen's Messengers and diplomatic bag handlers all over the world have come to recognise that a couple of whisky cartons going to the ambassador doesn't mean he has a drink problem! Besides that, they carry a positive image of Scotland. Many Scots don't seem to realise that the image of Scotland still means quality and good service in many markets around the world.'

Margaret Hendry, Office Manager and Company Secretary accepts another completed order for packing in a whisky carton.

A world map on the wall above the packing bench at Piccolo has a red spot for every British embassy and foreign customer who has taken delivery of its products. There are few unspotted capitals although several have a severe rash. Two framed certificates also show the awards that Piccolo Press has gained for its special contribution to the economy of the Highlands and Islands. From ambassadorial services, business has grown to include work for the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in the UK and for foreign embassies based in Britain, while the attachés' network produces work for regiments, RAF units and Naval establishments.

Security can be very important. When Piccolo printed the invitations for a cocktail party in Ulster for the Flag Officer Scotland & Northern Ireland, every scrap of copy, test runs, over runs and all paper work was collected by a courier to ensure no word of the event passed to terrorist groups.

From the diplomatic and military world, business spread to more exalted customers. Most of the Royal Households have had die-stamped material provided by Mr Honnor and his staff, and invitations and the like have been produced for some of the great State occasions.

When the then Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Forsyth MP, persuaded John Major to obtain the Queen's permission to return the Stone of Destiny to Scotland last year, Tim Honnor printed all the invitations. It was good business for him but paid no political dividends for Mr Forsyth – he lost his seat, as did every other Tory in Scotland.

And when, a few weeks ago, the first woman was made a Knight of the Thistle at St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, guess where the invitations came from?

Surprisingly, perhaps, it was a local order from just a few miles away which eventually produced an invitation printed at Piccolo and addressed to Mr and Mrs Honnor themselves. Having done work for the officers' mess of the regiment stationed at Fort George, the 18th Century fortress built to control the Highlands after the Battle of Culloden, he was asked to produce invitations for a party given at Balmoral by the Royal Guard, which is made up from the Fort George garrison. And one of those invitations was posted through his own letterbox.

Besides his printing operation, Mr Honnor is now putting together a museum of antique printing equipment for display in the small art gallery he is creating behind his printworks. Clearly his fascination with type and printing is paying off. Piccolo's turnover last year was £280,000 and Mr Honnor is aiming for £300,000 this year.

He has also found that his Nairn location can give him a positive advantage in dealing with customers and finding new business in the London area.

'Dalcross Airport, with direct services to London, is only half an hour away,' he says, 'and carriers are now extremely cheap. I can now deliver up to 10kg of goods to central London, say to the Foreign Office for the diplomatic bags, for as little as £6.'

'And I've found I can get to a meeting in Whitehall for 9.30am by leaving home at 6.30, which is often a shorter travel time than the man I'm meeting who lives in the Home Counties.'

'We also find a lot of our customers like to travel north to Nairn to see us, although I suspect the opportunity to come to Scotland and get out of London plays a big part in their decision making!'

The one small cloud hovering on Tim Honnor's horizon is the diminishing availability of spare parts for his equipment, much of which is over 30 years old, although still in first-class condition. 'I have access to a craftsman who can make parts for me, but the work has to be done by hand and is clearly expensive,' he said. 'Die-stamping and engraving has become such a rare art that there doesn't seem to be any commercial business in building new machines.'

Setting up one of the three orginal Heidelberg presses

However, there is no sign at all of any difficulties arising over the supply of his packaging material. The Scots' taste for their national drink is not diminishing and his friendly, neighbourhood off-licences are delighted he has found a very diplomatic answer to their litter problems.

Piccolo Press became a limited company on 1st April 2003.

You can also read the article about us in Livery News - the magazine for the City of London (March 2004)