Phoenix Press, one of the oldest printing presses in Penang, began operations as a commercial printer along Lebuh Gereja at the turn of the twentieth century.
Strategically located in the epicenter of import-export businesses, trading houses, entrepots and commercial banks, Phoenix Press initially printed letterheads, and delivery order and customs forms for businesses like Sime Darby, Jardine Matheson and McAlister & Co. Later, it ventured into printing bus tickets – once considered a security item printed exclusively in England. It also became the first local company to print betting tickets for the Penang Turf Club.
“Phoenix Press was incorporated in 1948, and was purchased by my father in the early 1950s,” says chairperson Datuk Tan Leh Sah. “When we first started, many assumed it to be a Chinese printing press because of the name ‘Phoenix’, but it was actually named after the mythical bird rising from the ashes.”
