Installed in December, the new machine has gone in alongside another six-colour Iridesse, replacing two five-colour Iridesses – one of which had acted as a backup machine throughout Covid.
“We do a lot of business in e-commerce, where the orders are received up to 2pm, and we send them out by close of day. We can manufacture about 5,000 orders a day, to send all over the country,” explained Keith Boyce, managing director of the franchise.
He told Printweek: “In Covid, there was uncertainty over parts and call-out times, so we moved to working over three machines, largely because we had to be sure we could deliver each day. From a reliability point of view, we really needed it.”
Rather than replace two older machines, the business kept them after installing the first six-colour Iridesse.
“If you manufacture up to 5,000 orders and distribute them daily, then you need a process that’s very reliable and robust. We could not achieve what we do consistently without Xerox,” Boyce added.
While he did consider other manufacturers for the purchase, the company’s 20-year relationship with Xerox, and Xerox’s support towards the company’s efforts to automate further, proved decisive.
“When I thought about it, it was logical. They put together a good deal, and have helped me reduce costs in partnership,” Boyce said.
“They’ve been very good at working with us to deliver automation, very proactive. Their core FreeFlow products are nothing short of exceptional, so they bought into cost reduction with us, they bought into us having a reliable service, and they’ve bought into the principle that the marketplace is changing, and they can work with us to bring about those changes.”
For the £1m-turnover Minuteman Press King’s Lynn, that change is most obvious in the company’s shift of emphasis towards being a service provider, rather than pure manufacturer.
“I think growth, going forward, will come from those services that are on the periphery of printing,” Boyce said.
“We’re seeing great growth in apparel, stock and fulfillment. It’s about having closer relationships with customers.
“The online part of the business, if anything, has been under pressure the last three years. It’s become a lot more price competitive as more people enter the market, so we’re having to look outside the digital click market to look where we feel confident to deliver profitable growth. It feels like we’re in a transition.”
Over the early part of 2025, Boyce added, the company will look to secure its profits in the face of rising business rates, National Insurance and Living Wage rate.
“I think over the next three to six months, the focus is on how we can deliver an acceptable level of profitability to be able to reinvest in the business. That’s our biggest challenge,” he said.
“We’ve got our business back to quite a strong foundation, after last year, when we focused on reducing costs: that work is done now, and I think once we get to April, we can look forward with some optimism, because we’ve got some really interesting new products coming.”
Minuteman Press King’s Lynn employs 10.
