The 20-staff company needed a cutter that could handle stocks of 90-500gsm and the bulk trimming of wide-format digital jobs. The guillotine, which was installed last month, cost £44,000 and was partly driven by the installation of an EFI Vutek press last year.
“If you buy cheap you buy twice,” said managing director Richard Parker. “Polar guillotines are the best and Heidelberg is a trusted partner.
“The 12-year-old Wohlenberg was good but a generation old and the difference between that and the Polar is galactic in terms of operation. The new machine is absolutely gorgeous.”
Parker's company turns over nearly £4m from general commercial colour work and aims to boost that turnover by 25% in a year, echoing last year's growth.
Northern Print offers litho printing, wide-format digital and bespoke finishing from its base in Liverpool.
Nine months ago the company bought an EFI Vutek HS100 Pro, at a cost of more than £600,000, to run alongside two other Vuteks: a GS and a QSr.
“Vuteks are like Heidelbergs; they will last forever and the service is second to none,” said Parker.
The cutter works around the clock for half of each month, 16 hours a day for the remainder, so Northern Print needed a machine that was robust and reliable.
“This investment represents very good value for money. The operators are chuffed to bits to have a new and top-class and easy-to-use guillotine to run,” said Parker.
