The Ipswich-based printer has increased sales 10% year-on-year over the past three years and has bought the kit to accommodate more growth as it moves to a six-day shift pattern at its 1,300sqm premises.
All of the kit was installed around six weeks ago, and includes a Horizon SPF-FC/200L landscape feed bookletmaker, a Schneider Senator B1 guillotine and a Foliant Taurus laminator. It also recently added a longsheet feeder to its Kodak Nexpress.
The bookletmaker and laminator were supplied by Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS).
Healeys managing director Phillip Dodd said the total spend minus the feeder came to around £120,000, with half of that figure going on the bookletmaker.
He also plans on spending around £200,000 on Kodak kit in the near future and is also keeping his eye “very closely” on LE-UV print devices.
Dodd said: “We went to Drupa and had a look at all these wonderful inkjet machines but I couldn’t quite get my head around how to make them work and make money for us. So we had a look at the rest of the business, decided that A4 landscape is becoming quite popular, took a look at the bookletmaker and really liked it; it's a really good bit of kit."
“We’ve been growing fairly solidly for the last three years so this spend is about alleviating some of the bottlenecks that were appearing. So we are bringing in A4 landscape production, adding a modern guillotine to replace a very old one and bringing laminating in-house to control production of our same-day work."
The bookletmaker works at a maximum speed of 4,500bph and joins a Horizon StitchLiner 5500. It has increased productivity while “retaining quality of output”, according to Dodd.
The longsheet feeder has been “brilliant” and was brought in to account for A4 landscape and longer-run work on Healeys' Kodak Nexpress S2500.
The guillotine was purchased from supplier Friedheim International and has given Healeys a boost with its B1 capacity.
The 35-staff outfit, which mainly works in the property and fine art markets, wants to grow turnover by around 10% for the fourth year in a row. In 2015 Healeys posted revenues of £3.75m.
Along with the new kit, it runs a five-colour Speedmaster XL 75 and a two-colour Speedmaster for the stationery side of the business.
On the digital side, it runs the Nexpress and a Ricoh C7100 with spot gloss and white, purchased last year.
Elsewhere in the business, Dodd has recently had a full-sized table tennis table installed, which he said has increased productivity as staff are keen to arrive early and were keeping “lean and fit”.
He is yet to win a game.
