Howitt has opened a direct mail facility at its Sutton-in-Ashfield superplant near Nottingham.

It invested 1.4m in the 1,500m2 facility to bring monochrome personalisation, finishing and mailing in-house.

"It was installed to meet specific customer needs," said chief executive James Elliot. "We were already pre-printing rolls for personalisation, which was being carried out by other firms. Customers benefit from improved security and response times."

The DTI provided 250,000 of the cost towards the direct mail operation due to Sutton-in-Ashfields deprived status.

The firm has created 35 new jobs to date at the new facility with the possibility of a total of 60 over the next two to three years.

Sarah Frith has been appointed to manage the direct mail side. She was originally brought in as a consultant to carry out a feasibility study for the project and previously worked for Vertis and Bemrose.

Oc was appointed as the single source supplier for the project. As well as supplying two of its PageStream 500 web-fed digital printers, it supplied personalisation software and finishing equipment from third-party suppliers including GMC Software and Friedheim International. The firm has a four-year agreement to supply and support all the equipment.

"We are excited to have had the opportunity to work with Howitts and look forward to watching the business grow," said Oc UK printing systems director Simon Wheeler.

The plant has the capacity to produce 1.8m packs a week and Howitt expects it to produce 25m in the first year.

Plans for the opening of the rest of the superplant are well underway and the firm expects it to be operational next month.

Story by Barney Cox