Fresh from the installation in May of a Horizon BQ-470 PUR perfect binder and a Horizon HT-30 three-side trimmer, the firm last week added a Komfi Delta 52 laminator, supplied by Friedheim International, to its growing raft of kit. It is UK Bookbinder’s (UKBB) first foray into laminating. List price for the latest device is £39,000.
“It is frequently requested predominantly for the covers of brochures that we are going to be binding,” said general manager Lee Gray. “We’ve always outsourced laminating and so now we can really cut turnaround times because if it’s a short-run job, time is always of the essence.
"We haven’t brought in a laminator because we expect it to make us a fortune, we’ve done it because we expect it to attract work and add value.”
The business, launched in 2001, provides finishing on runs of five to 500,000 on various products including books, brochures and magazines for a wide range of businesses and Gray said requests for laminating have been growing in recent months and with the addition of the binder he was anticipating digital work growing and therefore laminating requests too.
“Every three years we review what we’re doing and where previously we’ve looked at upgrades and adding similar kit, this time we’ve tried to diversify to cater for the emerging market for us.
“We spoke to clients and did a campaign asking what they would like to see us add and there were two stand out services including laminating.” Gray was tight-lipped about the other, hinting at another potential new service in the future.
Gray said the Komfi Delta 52 was chosen because after considering both the B1 and B2 markets, it was felt that most B1 had in-house laminating. The next thing was to decide between new and used, he said.
“We had a demo of the Delta at a customer in Exeter and we were really impressed with the speed of the makeready and quality of the work and level of automation,” he explained.
“What really firmed up our thinking between getting new or used was when we took delivery of the new Horizon binder – we were just so impressed with the level of automation on it. And because this is our first move into laminating we thought the easier we can make it for our operators the better for us,” he added.
As well as the new laminator and binder and trimmer UKBB runs a nine-station Muller Martini Star Plus binder with PUR nozzle system, a 15-station Muller Martini Star Plus binder with nozzle system, two Meccanotecnica Aster SA220 thread sewing machines with 12-station inline gathering (26,000 sections per hour), three MBO B30 folders, a MBO T800 folder and two Polar 115 Guillotines.
Gray said the 35-staff company, which is on course to hit turnover of £1.5m this year after 20% year-on-year growth since 2014, was also in the process of installing a Col-Tec 14-station collator this week at its 1,900sqm Weston-Super-Mare facility, with more kit to follow in the coming months.
“We are looking to provide more strings to our bow and to offer existing and new customers more opportunities that we haven’t been able to before,” he said.
