Opening up production space in its 6,000 sqm warehousing and office in late September, Dayfold invested in an HP Latex R2000 hybrid printer and 1.8m Summa F1832 flatbed cutter/router, taking up work on a £250,000 contract straight away.
“We have one particular customer that effectively opened the door for us,” explained Lee Carpenter, client engagement director at Dayfold.
He told Printweek that the longstanding customer had decided to buy retail signage, and asked Dayfold if it might be able to produce it. For such a significant contract, the company decided to invest in its own kit rather than outsource the work as it normally would have done.
“We also wanted to be able to supplement our existing offering, including rigid box making, litho and digital print with large format,” Carpenter told Printweek.
With about half the production week covered by the major contract, Dayfold has managed to fill up the Latex’s remaining shifts by bringing existing outsourced work in-house and appointing a new salesperson to canvass existing clients for large-format work.
“We’re very busy,” Carpenter said.
“We had a bit of a Christmas rush. The machine was only installed in September, but we have one guy that’s very experienced on [wide-format] machinery, and we’ve retrained another onto the [Latex]. Every job at the moment is a bit of a new job, so they’re just putting into practice all the skills they’ve learned.
“It’s a great piece of kit, and very flexible – and we feel the latex is the most sustainable machine in the [wide-format] area.”
The new wide-format business is projected to turn over up to £500,000 per year, with Carpenter aiming to grow sales further.
“We certainly have opportunities to grow that,” he said, adding: “Our existing customer has given us a great footprint to build on.”
The Summa has likewise proved its worth, with the router head helping with the firm’s rigid box division by routing for hidden magnets.
Arriving alongside the HP and Summa was Dayfold’s new InkTec direct-to-film garment printer, which itself may form the germ of another new revenue stream for the approximately £5m turnover firm.
“Initially, we bought it because we were due to reorder our staff workwear, and thought we could do it ourselves,” Carpenter said.
“But since then, we’ve had a couple of customers ask us to look into whether we could do them tote bags, T-shirts and other garments – so that might well be an area of expansion for us in the future, too.
Dayfold employs 60 staff across its Verwood, Dorset and Bath sites.
