Take a look at that sum: £25,000. It’s a week’s wages for some of the Premier League’s lesser stars, a life-changing amount of money for many of the fans sitting in the stands. Here on the printing industry pitch, where essential bits of kit routinely require a seven-figure investment, £25k doesn’t initially seem like a ‘back of the net’ amount.

However, as previous PrintWeek articles on the topic of budget bargains have revealed, there’s a lot that can be achieved with a – relatively – small amount. In fact, such is the explosion of low-cost gadgetry in this sector, it could be possible to select two or even three extremely useful value-adding items within a £25k budget.

Last month’s Northprint show proved a handy showcase for a variety of winning kit in this bracket. Take the new Impress Systems Foil Xpress digital foiling system being distributed by Unibind. This device enables users to produce short-run and variable foiling – it could even be used for proofing differing foiling styles – through the simple expedient of printing directly from a Microsoft Word file. It costs less than £10,000 ex-VAT (£8,495 to be precise) yet its appeal to printers large and small is obvious. Berforts managing director Gerald White was sold on sight, and snapped one up straight away. "It’s the first foiling machine we’ve seen that is computer-controlled, so we can make a book of one. And it’s very affordable," he said, with no little understatement.

Finishing first
In fact, the finishing arena is awash with bits of kit in the sub-£25k price range, from desktop items like the Foil Xpress through to substantial standalone devices. Also seen on these shores for the first time at Northprint was a new folding and creasing unit from Swiss firm Multigraf, the Touchline CF375. This costs £24,995 and will be shipping in June. It is likely to go head-to-head with one of the established darlings of value-for-money finishing devices, Morgana’s Digifold. Since the Pro version of this device went on sale at the end of last year, some 400 have been sold worldwide. Morgana national sales manager Ray Hillhouse says that one of the key benefits of the £22,990 machine is its SmartScreen technology. "This means the machine can be set up to go in two sheets of paper, which is what the digital market demands with every sheet costing a ‘click’ on the meter. Once set up, the job can be saved for recall if there is a re-run – there is no waste," he states.

Another simple, value-adding and simultaneously low-cost device comes in the shape of the Uchida U-Coater, a new machine targeted at the digital and short-run markets. This SRA3-format, £6,500 desktop device is a completely new thermal transfer coater that can either deliver a total coating across the sheet, or on the image areas only. Gold, silver and holographic finishes are also available. Tony Hills, director at UK distributor UMG, reports a "massive amount of interest – there’s nothing else like it on the market," he says. "It looks like a high-quality UV varnish, but it’s not UV. And it’s a fraction of the price of a UV machine in terms of capital outlay." Perhaps it’s not surprising to hear that Hills has already sold out of his existing stock of the machine and is awaiting the arrival of a fresh batch in August.

This entire article could be filled with finishing kit alone, and the comments from our selection of printing company managers (see boxout) show an overwhelming number would think of spending their £25k on finishing, first.

But there are other areas where a £25k spend can deliver a lot of added value too. For the press hall, a new press, admittedly, may be out of range, but how about a Collomix Visco 500 ink mixer from WRH Marketing? The compact, £9,000 machine features a biaxial mixing mechanism that looks on first glance a little bit like the inner workings of a washing machine. Pop in the ink tin, press a button and it takes a maximum of 3.5 minutes to mix what would take 10–15 minutes by hand – the manufacturer reckons it’s a worthwhile investment for any printer doing 15 or more manual ink mixes a day. As an added bonus for those who are children of the 1960s and 1970s, there’s something delightfully Joe 90 about it, too.

Or perhaps a pile-turner would provide a suitable (re)turn? CyanX in Leeds has Rachners available for between £10,000 (B3) and £15,000 (B1), and a B2 variant fitted with top-of-the-range air and vibration can just squeak inside £25k bracket.

Firm favourites
For bargain on-press colour control, Bodoni Systems’ PressSign has long been a low-cost favourite, so it’s no surprise to hear that the system has now garnered more than 1,000 users. "Not bad going for a little company in Watford," as managing director Ian Reid modestly puts it. The new version now includes PressSign Mobile, so users of smart phones and iPads (and internet browsers) can see what’s happening in print production, and can even communicate with the press operator via chat messages. Recent purchasers of the system will receive a free upgrade. The full version of PressSign itself costs a mere £2,695.

And let’s take another look at the press hall. All right, we’re not going to stretch to any heavy metal, but £25k is enough to dip a toe in the digital waters. Consider, perhaps, a wide-format machine, such as HP’s 152cm wide DesignJet L25500 with latex ink for just under £22,000. Or maybe a Roland DG Soljet XC-540MT integrated print-and-cut device for £24,250, including white and metallic ink capability, and described as a machine that will "run and run all day long".

Aside from tangible bits of kit that can be acquired, the more ephemeral world of software and services is also worth addressing. A workflow automation system that’s been something of a slow-burner in this regard, but that’s increasingly finding favour in the marketplace, is Enfocus Switch. The firm has just beefed up the processing system, allowing it to handle more tasks in parallel. And the top-of-the-range PowerSwitch 10 is a snip at £5,455.

Similarly LithoTechnics’ Metrix job planning and imposition system is coming into its own in a world where customer requirements are changing right up until the last minute, and where printers are adopting workflows involving ganging multiple jobs to make the most efficient possible use of every sheet. This is another scalable, modular system and pricing starts at just £2,500. An average installation (involving multiple modules and seats) costs around £10,000 according to Alan Dixon, director at UK distributor Workflowz. "The advantage of our floating licence means that estimators and pre-press people can share it on a network. People can start small and grow with it once they realise what it can do," he says. "It’s a better way of going about business these days, rather than requiring people to make large, up-front investments."

The increasing adoption of software-as-a-service models puts a plethora of low-cost, scalable solutions within reach. An example being Ricoh’s Nowprint web-to-print offering, which costs between £499 and £599 a month, making it highly affordable for companies to dip a toe into W2P without breaking the bank. As one print techie puts it: "£25,000 must go a good way towards many an MIS or web-to-print system – including the all-important consultancy, customisation and set-up."

We couldn’t agree more. Thoughtful, targeted investment – even of just a few thousand pounds – is a way for smart businesses to score.

IF I HAD £25K, I'D BUY...
Danny Narey
Operations director, Adare
"I’d buy a couple of padding machines, or a card attacher. Yes, an inline card attacher for matching and attaching plastic cards."

John Patrick
Production manager, Team
"We’re a litho and digital printer, but I’d be looking at digital finishing kit. We recently bought a small bookletmaking machine and we’ve noticed the benefits already. Small bits of kit like that can definitely make a difference."

Stewart Marshall
Director, Riasca Paper & Print
"Some trimming, stitching and bookletmaking kit from Duplo; a digital bookletmaker, that’s what I’d spend it on."

Harry Skidmore
Managing director, Easibind
"Hmmm, there’s not a lot you can get for £25,000. Instead of doing all my own software I’d buy an entry-level Kodak Insite or Storefront product to integrate with our workflow. Connecting digital workflow systems is going to be a critical area."

Andrew Ryan
Manager, Abraxas Creative Media
"I’d get a secondhand Polar guillotine."

Howard Turner
Director, Printing Plus
"I would upgrade my finishing equipment to make the whole production process more efficient. I’d look at a range of small items I could buy to accelerate the production process."

Jon Tolley
Managing director, Prime Group
"Probably a UV varnisher, or a web-to-print package."