The Poole-based business took delivery of a Fastbind Casematic A46z casemaker and a Fastbind Pressomatic hard cover groove press just before Christmas.
“Since our inception in 1995 we have built the business on the back of short-run, fast-turnaround digital print solutions,” said owner and managing director Paul Dawe.
“About seven years ago we identified a growing market in affordable book production where we could use our skills to provide the same personal service to a wide selection of publishers and self-publishers in the UK and worldwide.
“We see our place as a dual supplier to a range of publishers who have a need for a reactive service for reprints and short-run titles. Many of our publishing clients will batch numerous titles together to achieve scales of economy on their shorter runs, this can now apply to casebound titles too.”
CMP (UK) operates two Canon colour presses and three Canon VarioPrint mono presses. Its in-house bindery includes kit for perfect binding, square-back saddle-stitching, laminating, foiling, and coil and wire binding.
Operations director Richard Johnson said: “Outsourcing of case binding has worked well for us and we have been very pleased with the quality of our hardback products. By investing in our own facility we now have more control and flexibility. This works well for split editions, short runs and tight deadlines.”
The business received an onsite demonstration from Ashgate Automation and, upon installation, full training.
“We liked everything about the machine from its price to the simplicity of its operation but, above all, the great quality of the finished book,” said Johnson.
“The impressive quality of the finished books gave us the confidence to seamlessly transition our outsourced, short-run work in-house.”
Dawe added: “We are optimistic that as well as benefiting from all of the advantages of bringing hardback bookbinding in-house, the ROI should be within the first year.
“It also gives us the opportunity to take on more short-run, cased work with the reassurance of knowing that we have full control in-house with the backing of Ashgate for service and support.”
