Each of the firm's 450 stores has installed a Renz calendar binding system alongside an Epson WorkForce A3 plus multifunction printer. Roll out across all stores was completed three weeks ago and took eight months.
Max Spielmann innovation director Ivan Sestan didn't disclose the budget but said: “The machines have gone into all our stores as well as concessions to give better customer service.
“For the past five years we have printed calendars at our central site but there are big peaks in October, November and December. We wanted to enable in-store, on-demand calendar production.
“You can do more fancy things centrally with a Xerox printer, but you can't deliver within an hour and that is what we wanted. But this is not just about calendars, it's about photocopying and document printing.”
Sestan said the company will use the Epson kit for a photo balloon service, which will soon be launched in several stores.
“We believe this will help grow sales because we can provide a more responsive, faster turnaround service. We are adding additional opportunities such as photobooks, documents, dissertations, CVs and orders of service.”
Max Spielmann was founded by Bill Graham and his business partner David Reed in the 1950s and was owned by the Wirral-based Graham family for 50 years.
In 2008 it was acquired by the Timpson Group and Sestan said managing director John Timpson fostered a unique culture he called “upside down management”.
He explained: “Our store colleagues are the most important part of the business and we will give them the best kit to help them take the pain away from customers who want something in a rush.”
The calendar binding line from Renz was quick and easy to install, simple to use and assured a high-quality product, he added.
Each binding kit consists of a Renz SRW 360 table-top wire binder, a Renz TC20 calendar thumb cut punch, 100 wires and 100 hangers.
“We trialled it for four months and were very pleased with the results,” said Sestan.
“We chose to roll out the same lines throughout the stores because we didn’t want to have to support and train multiple solutions and wanted product consistency for all our customers. The last lines have just gone in and are ready for this festive season’s busy period.”
