The two high-speed lines were installed last month at the Aylesbury-based mailing house’s factory, where they joined three Buhrs poly lines.
“GB Mail welcomed what we call ‘The Twins’ in early October, the purchase of which was driven by an upsurge in demand for traditional long run poly work,” said managing director Joe Ghadami.
“Work is already underway to convert one of the two lines to paperwrap, which will complement our existing in-house paperwrap offering.”
The used Sitmas were acquired from from Retail Mailing Solutions (RMS), which closed its 36-staff Rainham facility this summer after the loss of The Guardian’s newspaper supplement wrapping work.
Combined, the fully loaded lines feature 10 interchangeable servo-driven feeders, including rotary, double rotary, newspaper and shuttle feeders. They also have robotic auto stackers for fast and accurate mail sorting, which, according to Ghadami, are essential for the speeds that the 21,000iph machines run at.
One of the pair also has an auto reel changeover and both have inline VideoJet inkjet systems, which Ghadami said have Mailmark capabilities and are compatible with traditional poly, starch poly and paper.
One line was bought via auction, while the second was bought from the company direct.
“We would like to thank the management at RMS for their cooperation and assistance throughout, and wish them well in their endeavours,” said Ghadami.
The lines were decommissioned over a three-day period by GB Mail’s own engineers, and were back in operation at its 1,500sqm factory three days later, with the first live job produced the following day. Ghadami singled out operations director Gary Leonard-Pepin and commercial director Ben Taheri as “key players in the move”.
The 30-staff business was founded in 2017. As well as its expanded battery of poly lines, it runs four high-speed envelope inserters, a paper wrapping line, a raft of finishing kit and operates a dedicated hand fulfilment team for non-machinable pick and pack jobs.
Ghadami said recent investments include extending its onsite storage facilities to add an extra 165 pallet locations, three further digital presses, bringing its total to six, and a Morgana DocuMaster Pro bookletmaker with square back option.
“We are a relatively young yet growing business and are proud to have safely remained fully operational and made no redundancies since the outbreak of the pandemic, he added.
“Covid did affect us as it did everyone, we saw at least a 50% drop in mailing volumes overnight, however we did pick up a decent number of new clients as a result of the pandemic and we are now nearing pre-Covid volumes with plenty of opportunities in the pipeline.”
