Melbourne printers this week are paying tribute to leading industry figure, female pioneer and former SR Frankland director Geraldine Frankland, who has died of cancer aged 66.

Frankland worked at her father Sydney Frankland’s printing company from the mid-1980s and later succeeded him, becoming one of the first female print owners in Victoria, and Austraila, before selling it to Vega Press in 2000.

Precision Forme Cutting manager Alf Puglia, who was SR Frankland’s finishing supplier for many years, remembers Frankland as a shrewd and level-headed businesswoman.

“Geraldine did an exceptional job taking over from her father, she fitted the company like a glove and it kept growing,” he says.

“She was strict but fair in how she operated the business, and we never had any arguments.

“Printing was an even more male-dominated industry back then and she was one of the first women to come in and make her mark."

Former Geon Melbourne colleague Tony Haag says Frankland has done her father proud.

"This is a very sad loss to all of us who have also spent our working lives in Melbourne's printing industry. Geraldine did not often speak of equality, she exemplified it," he says.

Frankland stayed on at Vega for two years after the sale, and then moved to Kuala Lumpur in 2007 where her husband Mark Kinden was running the local operation for Pemara Labels.

She returned to Melbourne 18 months ago and was diagnosed with bowel cancer.

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