The machine, which can print at speeds of up to 25,000 envelopes/hr, was bought from Dutch reseller Rollenco for around £30,000. It was installed at Carousel’s 511sqm premises in Wortley, West Yorkshire at the end of February.
The company creates branded envelopes for more than 80 customers across the UK, including high-street banks, councils and mailing houses.
“This new machine has increased our capacity, which means we can get a lot more envelopes out per day, we can get them out quicker, because it runs a lot more quickly than our other machines, and as it’s a newer machine it has a higher quality as well,” said director Russell Morley.
The business has recently secured contracts to print postal voting envelopes for local councils, which has increased its March and April workload by an extra 10%.
“We knew there was a lot of mailing work coming up with the election and this machine gives us a bit more firepower when it comes to pricing and trying to compete with some of the bigger businesses,” said Morley.
“It gives us a bit more of an edge which means we can compete now when it comes to some of the larger runs.”
The firm also runs two other Halm two-colour litho envelope overprinters, two Diamond overprinters and a Neopost digital envelope printer.
In the near future it is planning to invest in a four-colour Halm press, which would increase its output to around 90 million printed envelopes annually.
The business financed the press investment through invoice financing with help from a £300,000 funding line from Bibby Financial Services. This has enabled Carousel to manage its cashflow and buy the equipment it required to boost its turnover.
The firm had faced financial difficulties last year after a planned deal that would have seen Kevin Dunstall buy the business and relocate it to Bradford fell through when Dunstall’s cheque for the down payment of Morley’s shares bounced.
Although the buy-out fell through, Carousel nevertheless lost £70,000 in money owed for work it had completed for Global MP.
Morley retained the business but said that these factors had put it into a difficult position and it quickly sought other funding methods.
“Bibby Financial Services has been instrumental in keeping my family and loyal employees in work,” said Morley.
“The manufacturing and printing industry is notorious for having slow payers. I often have to wait 30 or 60 days to be paid by my customers, but in the meantime, I need to pay my wages, bills and suppliers.
“I wouldn’t be able to plug that gap on my own and that is where Bibby has really helped my business to grow. We pride ourselves on quality and service and if we promise a client that we’ll deliver, we always do.”
Carousel Print, which has seven staff including Morley, his wife, brother and stepson, is looking to hire two extra staff later this year and targeting a turnover of £1.5m by the end of 2016.
