The Sunderland-headquartered group rescued the Service Point UK business two years ago after it went into administration following a financial crisis at the UK holding company’s Spanish parent.
Paragon has now invested some £3m in revamping Service Point’s production printing kit. The spend includes 41 Xerox Versant SRA3 digital printers, two Océ Arizona wide-format flatbeds, and a new HP Indigo 7800 digital press.
The HP Indigo 7800 and one of the Arizonas have been installed at the Service Point production facility in Birmingham. The second Arizona has gone to its Bermondsey branch in London, while the Versants - a mixture of 80 and 2100 models - have been installed across the network. It is Xerox's biggest single order for Versants in the UK.
Service Point has 26 locations around the UK. It offers a range of print and document management services.
Paragon UK sales director Tom Harrison said the new equipment would add to the network’s current capacity, and allow Service Point to “meet increasing demands from our clients”.
He said the firm was determined to grow its market share: “This large investment highlights our commitment to Service Point and the whole of the Paragon Group. We are dedicated to driving the business forward, which can only be achieved by investing in best-in-class equipment.”
Paragon Group jumped into the top 10 of the biggest UK printing companies in the UK in PrintWeek’s recent Top 500 with sales up 57% to £225m in the year to 30 June 2015, fuelled by acquisitions. The group employs around 2,850 staff.
Paragon bought the Norway and Sweden Service Point operations in 2014. Last year it also acquired the remaining subsidiaries of Service Point in Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands, and increased its stake in Service Point SA, which is listed on the Spanish stock exchange, to 72%.
