Bramwell said that securing finance from Barclays for its replacement Wohlenberg and Roland machines was like "pulling teeth" and resulted in a switch to HSBC this year.
He changed to HSBC to secure five-year finance for the guillotine and press, avoiding "ridiculous fees" from Barclays.
He said: "We are quite a successful company with a turnover of £3.8m so I was surprised that it was so difficult to get a loan."
Once it had secured finance the company installed a new Wohlenberg 132 high-speed cutter in January at a cost of £40,000 to replace a similar six-year-old guillotine. The company also upgraded its six-colour Roland offset press to an eight-colour Roland 700 in April at a cost of £325,000.
The Bramwell Labels Company co-founder Paul Bramwell said downtime on the presses due to maintenance was negatively impacting trade until he secured the funding for the new machines, which he said are now "running without a glitch".
Round-the-clock shifts were conducted to run jobs on the company’s second Wohlenberg guillotine while it waited for a replacement.
Bramwell said: "After 5-and-a-half years of excellent production, the Wohlenberg was getting too old and costly and we felt a new one would make us more efficient and cost effective.
"If we are satisfied with a piece of equipment then there doesn’t seem any point in bringing in something that our operators are unfamiliar with. That’s the reason why we’ve bought another Wohlenberg guillotine – continuity!"
He added that the label company was not planning any more investments in the foreseeable future as there was a need for consolidation at the factory. However, he hinted that its "really old" mechanical Roland 2-colour press used for UV coating could be next in line for a replacement.
The Bramwell Labels Company specialises in wet glue paper labels and produces in excess of 65m labels a month for the food and drink industry across the UK and Ireland. The business began in 1995 and has since expanded its Trafford Park space from 7,000 to 15,000 sq ft.
