The multi-award-winning Nottingham firm has taken on a raft of former YM Group employees, with Andy Clyde, Caroline Varley and Diane Appleyard joining sales director Rob Moules, business development director Mark Foskett and senior account manager Nick Ashmore, who came on board earlier in the year.
Clyde is technical director, Varley is commercial manager, and Appleyard is senior account manager.
The Eight Plus division came about after the chaos that unfolded at YM Group in Q4 last year, which left many customers in the lurch.
“Last autumn a lot of YM customers were let down, and our Eight Plus offering evolved from that,” explained EDWPS managing director Lance Hill.
“We’re a financially sound business and there was definitely an appetite from customers, and an opportunity for us to give them a Plan B.”
Hill said the move was a “natural progression” as EDWPS already outsourced its web and sheetfed litho work to complement its digital offering.
“We have a good, solid supply chain in the UK and Europe. We’ve been very selective and we’re working with customers who want to work with an expert partner who can add value,” he said.
Hill said that his own experience of working with print management companies over the past two decades was also informative in shaping the Eight Plus approach.
“I’ve seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. We [EDWPS] deal with PM companies that are like-minded businesses, that treat suppliers well and pay on time.
“We want to be that same type of partner.”
As well as managing entire projects, the Eight Plus team is also offering consultancy and help with tenders.
Moules said that dovetailing the Eight Plus offering with EDWPS’ award-winning setup – the firm is Printweek’s SME Company of the Year and SME Customer Service Team of the Year – was a win-win.
“We’ve been able to bolt on to the great things Lance has done at EDWPS,” Moules said.
“A lot of organisations don’t have print buyers, and we can help with that knowledge and expertise. There’s a great team here across the two operations and we’re adding value.
“A lot of the YM work is still probably not in the right place, the dust has not really settled yet,” Moules noted.
Separately, EDWPS has just installed an intelligent enclosing machine which is being commissioned this week.
The £120,000 MS Series 12 Envelope Inserter from Polish manufacturer Mailing System is the first to be installed at a UK print operation.
EDWPS learned about the push-button device via agent VPTS.
“It has inline folding and will probably double the speed of what we currently have. It’s programmatic and takes out a process, it can take an A4 and fold it to DL or A5, and enclose it in one operation,” Hill said.
“It also has cameras so we can do some clever stuff with matching and transactional. It doubles our enclosing capacity and gives us flexibility and backup.”
Training is just being completed with the line set to be fully up and running next week. It joins two existing Buhrs lines.
VPTS director Kevin Druce commented: “We are the exclusive agents in the UK for Mailing System equipment, their owner Przemek Lesniewski is very passionate about his equipment and a great innovator.
“We are very pleased that EDWPS have gone with this machine and our longstanding relationship continues as we will service and offer support with this, along with their other folding and enclosing machines.”
Hill said the firm was likely to break the £10m sales barrier this year thanks to growth from Eight Plus and a “world of opportunity” at its core print and direct mail business.
