The circa-£1m device was delivered to the firm’s Biggin Hill site last Monday (24 March) with training taking place this week, according to managing director Bob Charles.
The FB10000 is the latest in a string of investments for the firm as part of a targeted growth strategy and will join a two-year-old Inca Onset S20, a 5m Fujifilm Uvistar Pro8, a Xerox iGen4 XXL and a KBA Rapida 205 large-format litho press, which is housed alongside the Inca at Odessa’s Penge facility.
Among finishing equipment are two Kongsberg cutting tables and a 3m Bickers gluing station.
Previously specialising solely in outdoor media, this now accounts for only 40% of Odessa’s business, Charles said, as the firm moves further into the POS market delivering items such as banners and free-standing display units for the retailers.
“This is the perfect bit of kit for our business now,” said Charles.“There was a decline in the outdoor market for a while and an increase in demand for work we produce on the KBA and flatbed,” he said.
“This will allow us to take the shorter run work, that is too much for our Inca, off our KBA 205.”
In 2011 Odessa expanded its original Penge facility and followed this 18 months ago with the opening of its Biggin Hill facility, which itself was extended around eight months ago to make room for a new fulfilment service. The company now occupies a total of around 4,650sqm.
“Along with the full spectrum of POS production, we can now offer the complete package since we started up this fulfillment offering,” said Charles.
The business has grown its turnover from £8m to £10.5m over the past two years, boosting its workforce from 35 to nearing 60 including part-time fulfilment staff, and is aiming to push turnover to £15m within the next three years, he said.
“I think we will keep our feet on the ground now for the rest of this year and hope we see the growth as a result,” Charles said.
“As our business diversifies and if we win a sizeable contract maybe we’ll need to invest further, but right now we are geared up to take on a substantial amount of work based on the equipment we have.”
