GI Direct invests 1.6m in transactional print move

20 March 2009

Post-press

Mailing House GI Direct is moving into transactional mailing following a 1.6m equipment spend with Sitma and the consolidation of its facilities into one site.

The Leicester-based company had two sites on either side of the city, because there was no room available at its main plant for an enclosing facility.

However, it has now managed to extend the site to a 9,200 m2 facility and everything has been brought under one roof.

Sales director Patrick Headley told PrintWeek that the company is now in the process of becoming a transactional printer, with the investment four new Sitma enclosing machines.

Two machines were installed in November, with the second two reel fed and specifically tailored for the transactional market.

The first tailored machine is up and running, the second is due to be in online in the next couple of weeks.

Headley said: "This move has been absolutely brilliant, everything is so much easier now. It has enabled us to move into a completely new sector.

"We will obviously be a lot more secure now, so the next step is to get the security standard APACS to add to our ISO27001."

He added that the £30m turnover company was not concerned about investing such a large amount of money in a time when most companies are opting to keep their money stored.

"This was a strategic decision taken last year, we have increased our speed and we also have a number of different products," he said.

A number of contracts have already been secured on the back of the investment and Headley said that more work would be sought once everything was fully operational.

GI Direct, which employs around 180 staff, has also launched a new postal service, Unity, offering further savings for its customers. The company will print mailings at its site and send them bulked with other products, enabling it to gain savings with Royal Mail.