The Liyu will allow Graphic Warehouse to produce work at the high speeds demanded by trade work. It replaces a Canon Arizona XT.
The firm has been working on its Graphic Warehouse trade brand since around 2018, only in the last year transitioning to a trade-first model.
“We were having to do the creative, the consultancy, and installation – and just didn’t want to do it any more. We weren’t enjoying it and it was causing anxiety and stress within a family-run business,” managing director Richard McCombe told Printweek.
“So the target was reducing stress: we looked at the business we didn’t like, which was free consultancy, free artwork, and managing projects and installation – and decided to leave it to the people who want to do that work. Our model now is many customers, many transactions.”
To help the firm’s transition, Graphic Warehouse’s directors invested in a new 1,400sqm facility, which required extensive refurbishment. Built on a plot of roughly 2,500sqm, the factory may be extended in the future, McCombe added.
Purchased through a pension trust in July 2024, the site had no gas, and required a total refit and decoration. Due to be finished in March 2025 following final works on a mezzanine floor for the finishing department, the total investment will come to £1.1m.
“In our last building, we organically grew room to room,” McCombe explained.
“Whereas now we have this big print room where stock comes through one door, onto the printer, and then into lamination or cutting, before going straight to a dispatch area and out the back door."
The new Liyu has already proved its worth in the company’s new trade model of operation, working at high speeds. It has allowed the firm to come down to a single shift, with capacity to spare.
He said the device's speed meant the next step was to look at automation for offloading the sheets.
“We’ve left plenty of space around the machine, so we could even put gantries around it for lifting stock on and off.”
Fitted with solar panels in January, Graphic Warehouse has already seen the setup generate 500KW of energy, even in the short days of a Lanarkshire January.
The firm has installed a hybrid heating system in its factory, with all its hot taps powered by internal heating elements – so, McCombe explained, rather than losing energy in the pipes, they produce hot water instantly.
“These things are amazing. They were only about £33 each, and it should all be getting offset by the solar panels,” he added.
As convenient as it has been for production, the move to the new facility required a considerable amount of paperwork. With several local authority grants helping pay for the new equipment and solar panels, the family had to find the money for the move upfront.
McCombe explained that to do so he and the other directors had set up a combined trust using their pension funds to buy the building.
“It’s quite highly scrutinised by HMRC, so you have to get consultants in, but you take whatever you’ve got in the pension fund, and put it in the new fund, which becomes a trust,” he said.
“You then buy the commercial property, and then the rent you pay goes back into the pension fund. Any excess profits can go into the fund as well, and you can buy other commercial properties or invest in other private companies – and borrow up to 100% of what you’ve got.”
Putting the family’s pensions at stake has given even more reason to make the move successful, he added.
“It’s capital that you can’t touch anyway, if it was tied up in pensions. But it definitely sharpens your attention when you put your pension fund into a project!”
