The Newcastle-based commercial printer moved to a new 557sqm premises in January, doubling its floorspace, and installed a second-hand S29 five-colour Komori Lithrone last month, replacing a five-colour Komori Lithrone 528 that was installed four years ago.

“A lot of our work is done same day, next day, or certainly within three days and we were struggling to cope with the increasing workload that is bringing. We needed something faster and more efficient and the S29 fitted the bill,” said co-director of the 11-staff, £750,000-turnover company, Stephen Gilbert.

Gilbert said the transition to the Komori Lithrone S29, which was supplied by Robert Graphics in part-exchange for the old model, had been seamless.

“We were running on two sites for a short period of time while the new machine was being installed and then we switched the old one off and all came to work at the new factory the next morning. It meant we lost no production time at all.”

The S29 is capable of printing up to 16,000sph and Gilbert said the company was running it at around 12,000-13,000sph compared to around 9,000 with the previous machine.

“Make-ready speeds have been cut from about 20 to 30 minutes to less than 10, as well,” he said.

“The inline colour-control is fantastic and the automatic make-ready function is saving so much time. It’s giving us unbelievable results.”

The Komori investment follows the installation of a new Horizon trim stitch booklet maker, to replace an older model, at the end of last year.

“That’s been an enormous success because we now get 4,000-5,000 booklets an hour compared to just 1,000 with the last one,” said Gilbert. “It’s meant we can reduce prices but we’ve increased output and revenue. The customers are gaining and so are we.”

Gilbert said with the new equipment the company, which mainly produces leaflets, brochures and flyers for small businesses, would look to grow the small number of jobs it currently does for creative and advertising agencies.

He said: “Previously the kind of quality they demand would have taken too long but with this new Komori that we have now, our confidence is growing and there is no reason we shouldn’t attack that market.”

Meanwhile Gilbert, who has run Print North East with business partner Lee Herbert since 2005, said with requests for digital work increasing he was planning to boost the company’s digital capacity, currently limited to a Canon Imagerunner 9060.

“We are seeing our digital work growing on a month-by-month basis so we will be casting our eye around during Ipex to see what might fit our business and then we will definitely look at making an investment in the autumn,” he said.

To keep up with recent and anticipated growth this year, the company is currently recruiting for new staff in its studio, press and finishing departments and intends to expand its sales team this summer ahead of the planned digital expansion.