The print and design firm previously outsourced its perfect binding and found that it had to turn away shorter-run work, which it was getting an increasing number of requests for.
“The company that we were dealing with for our perfect binding wasn’t interested in really short-run work. It was happy to produce hundreds of reports for us but it wouldn’t have been cost-effective to only have one or two made at a time,” said owner Stephen Loasby.
“We tended to convert that sort of work to wire-binding, which costs less but wasn’t really what the customer wanted. This investment is about making sure we can offer the right product to our customers.”
It has now brought most of its binding in-house, but still outsources longer-run jobs with a quantity of 1,000 or more.
Loasby bought the equipment at Ipex from Ashgate Automation after researching it online.
“We’d made the decision before Ipex, but went along to see it in action on Ashgate's stand, and also looked at a couple of other alternatives there too,” said Loasby.
“Ashgate's service team have been great since the machines were installed in May. They came out to us, spent over half a day training two of our staff and said they would be willing to do further training if we needed it.”
The company bought the Casematic H46 Pro to give it the ability to produce hardback reports and personalised items in-house.
“We produce yearbooks for schools in the area, which is something that we’ve had to subcontract in the past. We can now bring jobs like that in-house and I think in time we will build up a good return with this investment,” said Loasby.
“The casemaker was a bit more speculative on our part as we don’t see any great market for trying to do photobooks and things like that. There are some huge companies that do that and it wouldn’t be profitable for us to do it.”
The firm, which has 10 staff, serves local businesses in Peterborough and the surrounding area. It prints and finishes items including mailshots, banners and exhibition work and also offers general commercial printing services.
