A strong spurt of business has seen turnover rise from £4.7m to £6m over the past year, prompting the Birmingham company to install a Xerox iGen4 Diamond edition. The press is an addition to other Xerox equipment including an iGen3 and DocuColor 8002 and 8080 machines. 

“The iGen4 is by far the best printer we have ever purchased,” said director Steve Beeching. “It prints at 110 pages per minute, which is not so much faster than the 8000 series. But it just doesn't stop – it plods on and on. Maintenance is easy and the kit rarely goes down.

“It prints up to 26in width of paper: we do three A4 sheets side by side folded into a booklet in one pass for high-quality secure mail. Insurance and pension firms have moved from sending out bland loose-leaf documents to bespoke, full-colour booklets. With more colour, we need better machines.”

FCS LaserMail has also installed Hunkeler WB6, LS6 and CS6 finishing lines, replacing older Hunkeler kit. The new equipment cuts to a timing mark rather than a specified length, which improves accuracy, said Beeching. The kit also enables the team to cut up to 28in lengths.

The company also switched from PReS composition software, which it had used for 14 years, to a GMC package. Modules include email tracker, online proofing and design to enable the team to compose letters and statements. Typical setting times had been slashed by 70%, said Beeching.

The three investments totalled around £500,000, but FCS LaserMail is also looking at buying a new mailing enclosing line, from either Pitney Bowes, CMC or Kern, which will take the total spend up to £750,000. Beeching declined to give details of recent contract wins but said business was thriving.

“We have a great record of retaining customers and don't do business on price but on quality and security. We have eight programmers, which is a lot and probably unique to the sector. But we have complicated applications, we don't just put letters in envelopes,” he said.