The investment, which managing director Phil Wilce described as “significant”, was made in response to continued growth across the 27-staff, £2.1m-turnover business over the past two years.
The used device replaces a four-colour B3 Shinohara and joins two other B3 Shinohara presses, a two-colour and a five-colour. It was installed on 7 November and is now fully operational.
The 75, which was installed by Colin Lilburn at Graphic Machinery Sales, comes equipped with CIP3 and infrared drying, which Wilce said has cut setup times and increased production.
“Turnaround time is much faster as the drying is much quicker,” he explained. “Volume is increasing on the litho side so we need to keep pace with that and the timing was just right for us to move into the B2 market.
“We now have more roller power and can produce higher quality on the more complex images that we print. It’s really nice to have the versatility of the two- and five-colour B3s and the five-colour B2. We can do all sorts of stuff with that combination.”
Envelope feeds on the B3 presses also help with the mailing side of the business, which Wilce said was continuing to grow.
Alongside the litho presses Formara runs some large format equipment, a large finishing department and a raft of digital kit, including a Canon imagePress 10000V and an imagePress 700, which both replaced an imagePress 6000 three years ago, and two Oce 6160s, installed in 2015.
Wilce said the transformation of quality and reliability brought with the imagePress 10000 had supported a drive to do more personalised marketing print.
“The quality and versatility of the press to print on different papers really enabled us to expand in that way and it’s been a real success,” he said.
Additionally, the installation of DirectSmile marketing automation software from EFI along with the Canon investment in 2016 allowed the business to move into fully automated, personalised, multi-channel marketing, which Wilce said was proving a profitable growth area.
Formara produces a wide array of short-run, fast-turnaround work from its 1,490sqm facility almost entirely for direct customers, rather than print managers, Wilce said. And while historically it has focused on customers in London and the South East, the business has been eyeing a broader market starting with new customers in Manchester.
“We’ll continue to focus on London and growing our Manchester customer base for now,” said Wilce. “Manchester’s a great city, it has a very energetic business community, it’s a really friendly place with some great people. We’ve done some great business there already and I think there is more to come.”
Wilce is forecasting 5% growth over the next year, which he described as a sensible figure “considering the times we’re in”.
“We will continue to grow next year, looking at what’s on the table at the moment, there aren’t many risks to the business and there are a whole bunch of opportunities so I’m quite confident.”
