The Leicester group installed a high-spec Rapida 106 press, configured with six-colours plus coater, earlier this year.

Koenig & Bauer UK lauded the business for its performance across three different catalogue jobs.

A 60,000 print run of a tab indexed 252pp plus 4pp cover catalogue for Amtico Flooring was printed in CMYK plus two special colours and then sealed. The average production speed was 16,472sph and the job was produced 16% faster than previously.

The 128pp plus 4pp cover classic car auction catalogue had a print run of 3,500 copies, and was produced 25% quicker than estimated, with an average production speed of 15,493sph.

A 212pp decorative objects auction catalogue had a print run of 800 and ran at an average of 14,777sph. This was 44% quicker than the estimate.

K&B praised Taylor Bloxham, which recently achieved professional level certification for ISO 12647:2013 colour quality management, for “precision printing, colour accuracy and consistency”.

Taylor Bloxham Group chief executive Robert Lockwood said the firm was focused on delivering excellence across all of its brands: commercial print wing Taylor Bloxham, storage and distribution business Fastant, specialist point-of sale design and production wing Instore, and direct mail business Mailbox.

He said the £14.5m turnover print operation had shifted its focus. “For many years we were production-led, but some clients don’t respect that and want a commodity price, yet they also want to tie up one of our experts for two days.

“With our sales-led approach we are focused on people who place a value on what we do. It’s a relationship sell, as a trusted partner.”

Lockwood said Malcolm Lane-Ley, who joined the business as managing director of the printing business in September, was running a project looking at pricing and the added-value expertise that Taylor Bloxham delivered.

“It’s going to be an interesting time for the print side of the business over the next six months as we move ahead with that,” Lockwood added. “There is a real cost to the business and the price needs to reflect that.”

The Rapida 106 is also fitted with the CX package that allows it to handle packaging board up to 1.2mm thick, and Taylor Bloxham is exploring the potential opportunities to work with packaging customers who would benefit from the firm’s colour management know-how. It is setting up a partnership to handle specialist packaging finishing.

The group’s Fastant business was “full” and is set to significantly expand with a new warehouse that is twice as big as the existing facility in Q1 2019.

The Instore business, which works with footwear and sportswear brands, is poised to open a new office in Manchester to service key clients such as JD Sports, based in the north west. Lockwood said the group expected to post sales of around £33m this year.

K&B’s 1814 Production Excellence Award commemorates the commissioning of the first power-driven press which was built for The Times by Freidrich Koenig and Andreas Bauer in 1814.