Although he did not confirm the model number, managing director Darren Bacon told PrintWeek it will be a colour press with an envelope feeder, which will help the business to secure more commercial work.
“We’re looking to print envelopes C4, C5 and DL. We don’t currently offer that service but there’s a market out there for sure,” said Bacon.
“Generally we’re purchasing the machinery to get the sales in – we see the machinery as the salesman.”
The Basildon, Essex-based business specialises in producing documentation for the financial sector from initial public offerings (IPOs) to fast-turnaround business compliance documents that are distributed to global financial markets.
It currently has a turnover of £2.2m, £1.8m of which comes from its financial work.
The remaining £400,000 comes from the commercial sector but the business has made a £200,000 round of investment in new machinery this year with the aim to increase its commercial market revenues to £1m over the next three years. Its turnover remained stable in 2014 after financial work plateaued.
The company is currently the UK’s largest single-site user of Konica Minolta digital production presses. Following the latest install, the firm will operate a fleet of six mono and six colour systems at its 375sqm premises.
It also operates finishing equipment including guillotines, perfect binders, folders, laminators, wire binders, trimmers and case-binding equipment.
The vast majority of the firm’s work is printed digitally, although it outsources a small amount of litho work.
“We went for digital because we saw that the market was looking for speed, accuracy and smaller quantities. We are still quicker and more efficient than litho,” said Bacon.
“Around 70% of our work is black and white and our general average run is 5,000 copies of a 500-page document.”
Bacon had worked as production director at Anton Group following stints at Williams Lea and RR Donnelley in the 1990s. He left Anton Group in 2005 to pursue other challenges and established Colourfast Financial around six years ago.
The business has 18 staff, one of whom has joined over the past six months.
