It is also due to install a flatbed cutting table and a laminator from Vivid Laminating Technologies in the next month. The Versant replaces an outgoing machine and was installed around a month ago.
The Print Factory managing director Chris Lunnon said: “In the marketplace at the moment, the Xerox is a very versatile machine, being able to print envelopes, NCR and up to 400gm board.
"It took me about two weeks to make the decision on the Versant. I went to Drupa and made the decision straight after I came back, having looked at a variety of other machines.
“The Versant and the new Duplo sit in a very small room with my desk inside it, so jobs come out of the end of one and straight into the other one, finished into boxes and out the door.”
Lunnon said the Duplo system, installed in mid-August, was purchased after five years of consideration and is the first of its kind that the Baldock, Hertfordshire-based company has owned. The Versant and the Duplo can now both assist with The Print Factory’s sideline Christmas card business.
He said: “It got to the stage where I thought ‘Do I employ another person or buy a machine?’. A machine is not as versatile as a person but it doesn’t talk back and tell me that I have to make another revenue return at the end of the month and pay my national insurance.”
The Duplo was purchased with two additional heads, a cross head and a rotary head. It is listed at £70,000 minus the heads but Lunnon said he did a “pretty good deal” with the finishing kit manufacturer.
With the purchase of the new Multigraf folder as well as the existing guillotine in its finishing department, The Print Factory now has far more versatility for handling jobs.
Operating from Lunnon’s family cottage, the business employs four staff. Its turnover is £250,000 but with the recent investment Lunnon is looking to double this over the next two or three years.
It also runs a Roland VS-540 wide-format printer, a GMP mounter-laminator and a bookletmaker.
Last week, Suffolk-based Flyer Press announced the installation of a Duplo 600i booklet system.
