The Huntingdon-based direct marketing specialist installed its new paper wrapping line this month to boost its offering.

“We were looking at top end machines [speed wise] initially, but what we had to be realistic about was the type of machinery that fitted the profile of work that we have, we’re not at the very small end, but we’re not at the very large run end of the scale either,” said managing director Stuart Searle.

The paper wrapping line was built by Mailroom Machines in Leeds, combining refurbished elements, predominately the feeders and transport from a Norpak wrapping line with new paper feed, head unit, folding unit, and Mitsubishi control electronics.

It’s currently configured to offer mono addressing via a twin head system, can insert up to seven items into a pack and is capable of up to 10,000 A4 packs per hour and circa 12,000 to 13,0000 A5.

However, Searle said the biggest draw of the machine was not its headline speed.

“The huge benefit of this machine for us is the changeover time, you’re not talking two or three hours, it’s around 30 minutes. And if you’re chopping and changing between smaller run jobs, what you don’t want is downtime. So, it suits us perfectly.”

The firm handles naked mailers typically around 500,000, and publishing work from around 3,000 to around 70,000, which Searle said was also the sweet spot for the premium targeted type of work it focuses on.

While First Mailing’s line is a new machine in all but name, the paper wrapping elements of the Mailroom Machines-built lines are also available as a retrofit onto existing Norpak lines and Searle’s plan is that when the new machine earns its spurs he will retrofit the technology to one of the firm's existing Norpak poly lines to convert it to paper.

He said that the Mailroom Machines lines were by no means cheap, using well proven Norpak technology and high-end electronics and ancillaries, but they were a cost-effective solution for a company looking to begin its paper-wrapping journey without wanting to compromise on the quality of the finished product.

The Mailroom Machines lines combine Norpak feeders and transport with the latest technology

As well the new paper line, firm’s circa £250,000 spend included an expansion of the working space at its factory, bringing it up to 1,100sqm and two new naked mailing address systems and some machine upgrades in other areas.

Future investment will include the addition of camera recognition technology to the recently installed line in the coming months along with inline, full colour inkjetting to enable full face printing of the packs.

“Once that comes along, it will be of huge benefit to someone that doesn’t want to wait 7-10 days to get a reel pre-printed, or has a shorter run,” said Searle.

“For someone with a weekly [magazine] title for example, that means they will have the ability to change the artwork right up to the last minute and that puts us in a different league.”

Founded by Searle in 1998, the family run business moved to its current purpose-built factory in 2006. It employs circa 20 full time staff, and is currently recruiting for four more, two trainee operatives, a digital marketer, and a salesperson.

The business has around 600sqm of offsite warehousing as well as the factory, which as well as the new paper line houses a pair of Konica Minolta cut-sheet presses, four poly lines, four envelope inserters, two standalone naked mailer inkjetting lines and raft of finishing kit.