Badgemaster pins sales boost on new Mimaki duo

02 April 2019

Inkjet

Badgemaster has seen a 6% jump in sales year-on-year thanks to the blue chip and B2C work brought in by its rebooted website and a brace of Mimaki UJF-6042 MkII flatbed printers.

Producing name tags for nationwide clients, the Newstead operation has seen new projects commissioned by John Lewis & Partners, which includes Waitrose, and Costa Coffee.

Managing director Ian Bradbeer first eyed the original UJF inkjet system at Hybrid Services’ Sign & Digital UK stand several years ago and he ultimately decided to invest £60,000 in the two new machines from Sabur Ink Systems. Arriving late last year, the machines have been part of a resultant knock-on effect that has boosted Badgemaster’s sales in 2019.

“We have an older Mimaki system that had been running for around 12 years,” said Bradbeer. “In that sense, we wanted to upgrade but we also saw the potential for two new machines to give us additional capacity, as well as being much quicker.

“It improves our ability to turn around jobs at speed, and as we knew the Mimaki technology from previous investments we were happy to keep up that connection.

“We have a few plans for the coming year as we are on track with our growth strategy – there have been numerous different considerations as part of that, including potential investments and acquisitions, and the Mimakis have absolutely contributed to our improved performance for the financial year so far.”

Badgemaster was drawn to the Mimaki deal through Dan Jeffries, a former product specialist for Hybrid who moved to Sabur in 2018 where he now serves as business development manager.

Mimaki’s UFJ-6042 MkII systems can print a maximum area of 610x420mm at speeds up to 3.52sqm/hr using four on-demand piezo printheads in a staggered line. The two new arrivals at Badgemaster were used to produce around 85,000 badges for John Lewis’ latest rebrand.

The firm has now also launched a new online platform for personalised name-badge printing which allows it to tap directly into the B2C market and has also contributed to its recent uptick in sales.

Badgemaster’s turnover is now in excess of £5m, with a portfolio of digital, screen printing, pad printing, foil printing and dye-sub machinery running at its 1,393sqm premises.