The business, which operates from four sites in Lye in the West Midlands, Calne in Wiltshire, Cambridge and Oxford, has invested £465,000 on new kit, software and facilities over the period.
The fully integrated EFI MIS, which was installed in June, cost more than £125,000 while other investment has included £115,000 on extensive new manufacturing facilities at its main sites in Lye and Calne. Both sites have also had a significant investment in new plant and equipment.
The firm has added three Mimaki JV33-130 roll-to-roll wide-format printers to its Lye factory, to join three existing Roland wide-format devices, while investment in a Roland VersaUV LEF-20 flatbed printer has enabled the business to print onto most materials and handle difficult shapes and intricate components.
Additional investments at Lye include two new Daco reel-to-reel die-cutter/rewinders and a Zünd S3 M-800 flatbed plotting/routing machine, which complements an existing Zünd machine.
The firm has also installed two more Trotec laser cutting machines, an S300 and S400, at its Calne operation, which has recently moved to a newly refurbished factory. All of the new machines are additional rather than replacements.
“The investment programme has brought to the business a huge amount of production diversity, and the IT installation will reduce the complexity of the business moving forward,” said Customark managing director Greg Lerigo.
“At the end of it all will be a better return on our investment, which will allow us to further invest in our staff and business.”
Lerigo bought Customark, formerly an industrial label printer, out of liquidation in 2006. The business had been close to shutting, having fallen into administration.
“We’ve moved on quite a way from being an industrial label printer and have now expanded into a much broader range of products,” said Lerigo.
“Our key customers are in the electronics, technology, automotive, medical and scientific industries.”
Customark, which has 90 staff and a turnover of just under £5m, has grown by around 10% year-on-year for the past three years, though Lerigo expects growth to be around 4% this year due to the impact of the Brexit vote.
The firm has more than 2,740sqm space across its four sites, the biggest being Lye at around 1,200sqm.
