Purchasing of the equipment began in mid-December last year, with the new line-up headlined by an 800 production colour press and a Nuvera 144 mono press, both from Xerox, which will be installed at CMS’ Birmingham base in two weeks time.
Alongside the digital printers, a Pegasus streamfeeder, X-Jet and Kirk-Rudy inkjet printers, a Kern 3500 inserter, an MBO cross-folder and bolt-cutter, as well as an Extend TMD-P46P pallet wrapper and a Wohlenberg 92 production guillotine, have now been installed. All the machines represent expansions to the CMS portfolio, except the X-Jet which replaces a Domino K150.
Rather than a cohesive strategy, the six-week investment period came together by coincidence as a response to various different emerging demands from customers.
Managing director Mitesh Chouhan said: “If we have a requirement for a certain kind of work from a handful of customers, we do not say no – we will invest. We used to print until 7pm and run weekends in our press room but we still had capacity issues, so we knew more investment was needed.
“Our new kit enables us to handle virtually any mailing of virtually limitless capacity. It has attracted a lot of trade work from printers and mail houses, which is usually high-run.
“We can now go toe-to-toe with anyone, including the big boys in the sector. We have had blue-chip clients visit our premises and they are very impressed, our facilities would blow anyone away.”
The installation of the two new Xerox machines is set to take place following the completion of an extension of CMS’ press room at its 4,300sqm “super-site” which opened in July.
Its new investments allow CMS to address a variety of new requirements for clients, including the need for bolt-cutting by charity-based organisations and the increased demands on production from a growing trade customer base.
The wider tech line-up includes eight other Xerox machines, two Nuvera mono printers, a D110 production printer, three Versant 80 digital presses, a Versant 2100 and a WorkCentre 7220 proofer, four Buhrs BB300s, five high-speed polywrapping machines, five automated folding machines and two guillotines.
Alongside the new machinery, Chouhan also hired Chris Saunders to the newly-created operations manager position. Adding a “new tier” to the management structure, Saunders joins CMS from previous positions at RR Donnelley and IBM Warwick.
Moving forward, CMS will be looking to raise its £8.5m turnover to the £10m mark before its financial year ends in April. Chouhan said this “long-term” goal of his had now become achievable in the “medium-to-short term”.
Central Mailing Services employs 75 members of staff.
