Earlier this year the Birmingham-based mailing house took on a JWR 20K paper wrap machine from CMC, which joined three other CMC One paper wrapping lines.

The JWR 20K has now been installed for around two months, while the new line – a fourth CMC One – will be installed around March next year, representing investment of £625,000.

CMS managing director Mitesh Chouhan told Printweek: “We’ve not long had our fourth line installed – the JWR. The reasoning behind going for that is because we were looking to automate envelope enclosing and to wrap instead.

“So the JWR has a die-cutter built into the machine that will cut out a window and then place glassine into the wrap, making it look like a window envelope. And then it has a cutter on the back of the machine to produce the trapezium flap of an envelope.

“The JWR has all the intelligence – with the selective insertion and the matching and scanning – to basically do the same thing as the Kern 3500 that we took out. But then before we placed the order, we spec’d the machine with a motorised print frame so we could inkjet, to allow us to have backup if the three paper wrap lines are busy.

“But in the two months that it has been installed, the JWR 20K has been running every day as a paper wrap line – we’ve not once used the features that put the window in and cut the flap. It has just been flat out producing what the CMC Ones are doing – the machine is virtually full with work too now.”

He added: “We’re moving to night shifts and we're using weekends to take on additional work. So because we’ve maxed out these four machines, we needed a fifth. And we decided to buy another CMC One over another JWR.

“I think that as soon as this machine is installed, all five paper wrap lines will be busy paper wrapping onto non-window.”

The new CMC One’s features include a shuttle feeder, four rotary feeders, a motorised frame for CMS to be able to mount an inkjet system – which the business is looking at quotes for currently – and a robot stacker on the end. It will be the same setup as its existing three CMC One machines.

CMS also recently revealed investment in a new bespoke high-speed continuous printer that uses Domino heads – a collaboration between Domino, CMS and Anscombe Engineering. This has been installed but is not yet operational although Chouhan said it should be running within the next week.

The business is also undergoing an ongoing drive to be as close to net zero as possible by 2028. This includes various elements, including solar panels for the roof of its premises, which Chouhan said is currently in the process of being signed off, with the company hoping for installation this year.

Increasing call for paper wrap work for the business had been driven by various factors, Chouhan added.

“There’s been a few casualties in the sector, with people like Principal [Mailing] and The Mailshop and some other big hitters. So we’ve benefited from quite a bit of work that way.

“And also, in the marketplace for paper wrapping, there seems to be a lot of demand. I think there's more demand than there is capacity at the moment, especially for the higher run work.”

Chouhan said the company’s aim is to make the CMC Ones preset for different formats, with a plan to have two of the machines set up for C4 packs, with two set up for C5s “so we can swallow up some of the lower volume work as well”.

The company has recently taken on John Ellis, who was managing director at The Mailshop “who has brought a good amount of business over as well”.

It also has 10 new business salespeople who Chouhan said are backed up by 10 client services account managers, as part of a total team of around 100 people.

Operating across 5,500sqm of space plus a 745sqm storage facility across the road, CMS also runs printers from manufacturers including Konica Minolta, Xerox, and Eagle.

The company is targeting turnover of around £18m for its current financial year.