The company, established by director John Brailsford in 1986, has bought a Xerox Versant 2100 high-definition colour press and a D136 mono press as well as a Schneider Senator E78 guillotine for the larger of its two sites in Rotherham, South Yorkshire.
The Versant is rated at 100ppm on stocks up to 350gsm. It was installed at the 743sqm facility alongside four existing Xerox devices, including a 770 and two C60 machines. The D136 is a replacement for an older mono machine. Both were provided by Xerox UK.
Friedheim International supplied the Schneider Senator E78 guillotine, with a power cutting control system and touchscreen interface. The business now has four guillotines.
All three machines were installed at the end of November.
Brailsford said: “We’re a very on-demand printer and we offer a same-day printing service. The Versant works really well with the machines we’ve got at the moment. We needed to make sure that we’ve got the capacity for the work we’ve got. We can accommodate short-run same-day jobs or do longer-run work. This gives us extra flexibility.
"The Xerox products move us on to a different level. The Versant is a very high quality machine. The quality that comes off it is stunning, it’s photobook quality."
He said after being happy with his previous Xerox presses, he wanted to return for his latest investment. Similarly, staff are used to using an older Schneider Senator model and so buying the latest model was an easy decision.
The Versant 2100 is also fitted with GBC Advanced Punch Pro capable of adjustable punching and handling 300gsm media, as well as Fiery EX-P print controller and graphic arts suite. The D136 also includes the GBC Punch and high-capacity stackers along with a square-back bookletmaking and finishing system inline.
Brailsford said he was the first customer to buy the Versant 2100 and GBC Advanced Punch Pro configuration.
“When the documents come out they are ready for binding. On the other machine we’ve always had a semi-automatic GBC machine but it was still very labour intensive. We’ve noticed that just by having that process that we have been able to turn the jobs around with a tremendous labour saving. It probably halves the binding time. We just have to do wire closing now.”
He added that the company’s product mix and customers’ print requirements mean it could need wire-bound punching for one job and square-back perfect binding for the next, or just simple stapling or folding.
“The Xerox specification gives us the flexibility to handle every job inline without further operator intervention,” he said.
Brailsford started out with a secondhand single-colour AB Dick 350 offset press and a small guillotine.
Ten years ago it bought the UK's first Riso MZ770 digital duplicator.
In 2009 it adopted waterless production by swapping its offset press for a Presstek 52DI.
Brailsford's latest previous investment was in August last year, when he added a new Matrix Duplex Pneumatic double-sided B2 laminator.
He said he was proud his Rotherham site was now chemical free, and next on his agenda is to gain environmental accreditation.
He said a lot had changed in three decades.
“It’s gone really quick. The early years were very different – a colour photocopier was beyond what we could afford. In the past 10 years the technology has changed so dramatically as has the way we do business."
This year, he intends to capitalise on his company’s milestone anniversary.
“We’re going to use it as big leverage to promote the business. A lot of printers have only just set up, we want to emphasise our 30 years.”
The general commercial printer serves a loyal local customer base an a number of national retail clients. It has a 185sqm high street shop in Barnsley, 14 staff and a stable turnover of around £1.2m.
