The Birmingham-based company expects delivery of the second Ricoh press this month and has begun a phased install of the Slingshot system, also produced by Ricoh.
"We have to migrate from our existing MIS across to Slingshot, which will probably take around nine months,” said FCS director Steve Beeching.
FCS bought its first Ricoh InfoPrint 5000 GP six months ago to reduce outsourcing of pre-printed work. The inkjet printer also supported the business as it moved from pre-printed stationery to customised, high-quality colour output.
This investment was such a success that FCS decided to double this capacity and bring all of its production in-house.
While the first IP 5000 GP had a Hunkeler CS6-II cross-cutting module, the second is equipped with a Hunkeler UW6 unwinder and a Hunkeler RW6 rewinder to allow the company to feed its enclosing lines direct from the reel.
The Avanti Slingshot MIS features estimating, business intelligence, production scheduling, warehousing, shipping and billing. It will also incorporate a portal to allow clients “transparency” in viewing the status of their jobs.
Beeching said the company did a lot of market research before opting for Slingshot due to its “seamless” operation which “brings the whole process together”.
As the first UK business to install the Avanti Slingshot, Beeching explained how the investment decision factored around Avanti being a Ricoh-owned product.
“We’re not the first man-in-house to use the product as it is extensively used in North America. But it was quite important for us that Ricoh owned the product so we get online and local support.”
Beeching also revealed the company’s plans to re-home its Nottingham division.
“We’re currently looking for land to construct a purpose-built site in Nottingham to replicate Birmingham.”
FCS expects to exceed a turnover of £10m this year for the first time, with the group currently employing around 115 staff.
The company runs six Nuvera 288s, a Nuvera 314, two iGens and, exclusively PB enclosing-wise, has a mixture of MPS, APS and FPS.
FCS Laser Mail has been producing personalised print and mailing since 1971 and established its laser mail division four years later.
