"Our lead times are about as low as they can go now, and we've increased capacity," said Nightingale managing director Peter Mathews.

The family run firm, based in Royston, Hertfordshire, has bought a Horizon BQ-270 Touch perfect binder, a twin tower 20 station VAC-Turbo PowerCollator with book production line, a Horizon EF-35 suction-fed folder and a Perfecta 76 guillotine, all from Graphic Arts Equipment.

"We now need to concentrate on making money rather than spending it," said Mathews.

The firm, which  specialises in short-run scientific journals for the global market, invested in the kit primarily to speed up production and reduce errors. "If you're only printing 100 copies and you get one wrong, that's a 1% error rate which is too high," said Mathews.

Story by Darryl Danielli