The £22,000 machine was installed at Customark’s Calne, Wiltshire facility last month, replacing a Goodhale 920 guillotine that the 85-staff outfit had been running for more than 20 years.

It was supplied by Nottingham-based Terry Cooper Services (TCS), with which Customark already had a relationship having previously purchased a reconditioned guillotine from the company for its Cambridge site. 

Customark managing director Greg Lerigo, who bought Customark out of liquidation in 2006, said he had first considered opting for a reconditioned guillotine but opted for a new one after speaking to TCS. 

“I have dealt with TCS in the past and they did a great job in delivering the reconditioned one probably around two years ago to Cambridge,” said Lerigo.

“So I made the decision because it was new, good value and I could have it in 10 days; those were the driving factors for me.”

The CCM Premier 78 is part of the revamped CCM Premier range and has a cutting width of 780mm. It has an automatic knife function for repeat cutting, a deep clamp opening, which accepts more paper and therefore reduces overall cutting time, and an infrared slimline light barrier, along with an optical cutting safety line.

The investment follows on from a £60,000 spend on two Daco die-cutter rewinders, installed around six months ago. Lerigo now plans on investing around £40,000 on an Afinia Label DLP-2000 digital label press with die-cutting facility by the end of the year. 

Customark produces a wide variety of industrial labels and graphics for electronics manufacturers, including Sharp, Honeywell, Makita and Schneider Electric. The £4.5m-turnover outfit last year completed a £465,000 investment with the installation of an EFI Gamsys MIS. 

Along with its Calne and Cambridge sites, it also has premises in Lye in the West Midlands and Oxford, totalling around 2,740sqm of space, with the largest 1,200sqm site being in Lye.