Paired with the company’s investment in multiple new Duplo finishing machines in 2024, the expansion has given Flexpress capacity to grow its operations in 2025 – and certainly kept the business busy over the break, according to managing director Steve Wenlock.
“[The expansion] has kept me out of mischief this month,” he told Printweek.
“I’m one of those people that thrives on a bit of a challenge, so I like to keep stirring things up.”
The expansion had originally been planned for April 2024, but with the unit only becoming free in December, Wenlock decided it was best to get things up and running as quickly as possible over the quieter new year period.
“It needs a bit of tidying up and painting, and we’ve got to put the electrics in where we need them, but we’re taking it in two phases,” he explained.
“In the first phase, we just want to take the pressure off the space we currently have, and then in the second we’ll grow into the unit. It’s always good when you can get something to stick your teeth into.”
The expansion leaves Flexpress with around 1,400sqm of floorspace to play with, and will ease crowding in the main facility
In early autumn, Flexpress took delivery of a new Duplo Multigraf CF-375 creaser/folder, and upgraded a DBM-600 bookletmaker to a DBM-700 with square-back binding capability, with both machines coming in time to boost the firm’s pre-Christmas rush capacity.
The Multigraf has proved so effective and easy to use that another followed in December, with the two machines taking over duties from Flexpress’ Morgana folder.
“We’ve been very, very pleased with the Multigraf, which is why we put the second machine in,” Wenlock said.
“It’s got a very simple user interface – you can get almost anybody to use it, and do a really good quality job.”
He added that he was looking forward to making good use of the DBM-700’s square-back binding capabilities, which allow it to produce stitched books of up to 200 pages with flat spines.
“We’ve not started to really push for the square-back work, but we have already had a few customers expressing strong interest, so it’s a very positive sign. We will probably really target educational work [for the square spine work] around May,” he said.
Flexpress, which prints much of its work through an RMGT LED-UV 920 SRA1 press and an HP Indigo 100k, employs 27 at its Leicester site, and turned over £3.9m in the year to December 2024, representing growth of around 10% on the previous year.
“We’re encouraged. We’re pushing ahead for £4.5m this year, which with the extra space is not unreasonable,” Wenlock said.
“It’s obviously a tough old market out there, with a lot of changes going on, but we seem to be holding our own.”
