The certification was awarded to the Leicester-headquartered firm by UKAS (United Kingdom Accreditation Service) accredited body Print and Media Certification earlier this month after it passed a rigorous product test to the ISO 12647:2013 standard in this area of print quality and met the 'professional level' requirements of the scheme, the latest version of which was launched earlier this year.
Preparations for the assessment process included an MOT-style operation on the relevant machinery to ensure everything was in perfect condition for the tests required by the ISO standard.
“The ISO 12647:2013 standard is well known in the print industry for being an extremely difficult qualification to achieve, demonstrated by the fact that we are amongst the first printing companies in Britain to receive it, and the very first company to receive it at the ‘professional level’ of the BPIF scheme,” said Taylor Bloxham Group technical colour specialist Chris Bolton.
“Preparations probably took around a couple of months on and off – there were a few things that we had to do and a few boxes we had to tick, both pre-audit and during the audit itself.
“Most of the procedures were already in place, it was a case of reassessing and re-evaluating and making sure we had crossed the Ts and dotted the Is and established all the parameters.”
210-staff Taylor Bloxham Group’s recent investments have included a Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 litho press, delivered in March, an HP Indigo 7900, which was installed in January, and two Muller Martini finishing lines and an MBO K8 RS folder, which went in last summer.
“This certification is a vindication of the ambitious programme of investment that we have carried out over the last 12 months,” said Taylor Bloxham Group general manager Jamie Towers.
“We aim to lead the industry with state-of-the-art machinery that enables faster print speeds, great colour definition and the highest print quality.”
The £28m-turnover group is comprised of four divisions, all of which are based on separate sites – the main Taylor Bloxham printing wing, the recently relocated FastAnt division, which focuses on areas such as storage, fulfilment and e-commerce, direct mail division Mailbox, a new business arm launched in January, and large-format/POS division Instore.
The business, which is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, has recently appointed a new business development director and established a dedicated team to work with the education and membership sectors as part of its continued targeted growth.
