The wet-glue label, digital POS and litho UV plastics printer kicked off the search for a larger premises in 2015 and moved office staff, digital printing kit, finishing and repro in October, with the new circa-£2.5m seven-colour-plus-coater Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 plus its current Speedmaster CX 102 and foiling kit due to move in over Christmas.
“We went across in June this year to Heidelberg, tested the new press and produced our work on a test run and it was all very good,” said managing director Rod Fisher.
Almost doubling in size, Print-Leeds’ new Bramley unit is 2,800sqm, more than 1,000sqm larger than the previous one, with a 3,000sqm unit on the same site also purchased, which will either be rented out or used as a second unit. Property consultant Eddisons oversaw the sale of 38-staff Print-Leeds old premises and the purchase of the new units.
Fisher said: “The premises we had just wasn’t large enough, the car park wasn’t large enough for the trucks coming in on a daily basis and we just needed to expand our customers, who were asking for more and more printing and we couldn’t do it. The move across was seamless and this is a four-acre site, with enough parking for 100 vehicles.
“We’re quite an unusual story in print at the moment as all I seem to read about at the moment is doom and gloom.”
Fisher added that in searching for a Speedmaster he was looking for a conventional press, to work alongside the hybrid-UV CX 102. As part of the relocation, the company has also designated space for a new pressure-sensitive label line which it hopes to have one installed by Q3 2018.
One of the key drivers for the firm's expansion was the growth the business experienced as a result of the acquisition of wet glue label printer S&C Labels five years ago.
“It has got us into lots of new places [S&C] that has then led us on to other places,” added Fisher.
The purchase created a wet-glue labels division that it said has helped treble Print-Leeds' turnover to £5m since, and it is now aiming for £6m sales across the entire business by the end of the next financial year.
The business also runs a 2017-purchased Dyss digital cutter, a 2015-purchased Screen Truepress Jet W3200UV, a Gietz foiling machine and a range of other finishing kit.
