Following a review of its transactional mail production across its UK operations, the business purchased seven BlueCrest Epic direct mail inserters as well as two further inserters – one APS and one Pulse – from the manufacturer.
Some are additional to the company’s fleet while others have replaced older machines which were nearing end of life.
The new kit was installed across three Paragon CC sites, with three machines delivered to Bristol, three to Dagenham and three to its Tewkesbury operation. The installation programme was completed in December.
While the business had initially also considered machines from alternative suppliers, as it also required upgrades on existing kit, which was already predominantly Bluecrest, the decision was made to stick with the manufacturer “to keep as uniform as possible”.
In total the company completed 18 upgrades to its existing fleet of BlueCrest mail inserters as part of the investment drive.
Paragon CC said the overall investment is allowing it to run work faster and more efficiently and has also created additional capacity.
Additionally, it will contribute to the carbon reduction targets set out in the company’s 2030 Sustainability Strategy and will in turn help support the sustainability goals of its clients.
“We are truly delighted with our decision to collaborate with BlueCrest on this project and are impressed at how the BlueCrest UK team has engaged across our sites to execute this technology transformation,” said PCC UK integrations director Mark Buckingham.
“The process from order to delivery and install was completed in under six months. Our new fleet is up and running and we are already seeing the projected benefits and returns from our investment.”
BlueCrest executive vice-president Kim Andersen added: “We are very proud to partner with Paragon Customer Communications and work with them to deliver their vision.
“At over £6m this represents one of the largest orders ever placed for BlueCrest inserting technology.”
The BlueCrest spend follows a recent major Ricoh investment made by Paragon CC – including the first V20100 system in Europe – to enable it to add book-on-demand production at its Dagenham site. The business has also recently launched a new apprenticeship programme, following a successful pilot scheme.
Transactional and omnichannel marketing business Paragon CC is part of the €1.08bn (£930m) turnover Paragon Group of companies, with pro forma sales at the group now at €1.34bn since its most recent year-end in June 2020.
Paragon Group operates through three divisions: Paragon CC, Paragon ID, and Paragon Graphic Services.
