Historically a one- and two-colour site producing railway timetables, manuals and instructions, the firm found it was also producing an increasing volume of four-colour work since installing a four colour Manroland machine four years ago, primarily to produce two-back-two work.

"We believe there is a market that Gait can serve in the midlands and the north for colour work that complements the work produced by Grange in the south," said chief executive Paul Utting.
Target markets for the increased capacity include local government and education.

The press is a Komori SP540, a 10-colour B1 tandem perfector, which had been decommissioned at the firm’s Roche site. It replaces a single-colour B1 unit. The Komori SP is a standard press within the group with four units running at Grange in Hove.

In the bindery a secondhand 16-station Wohlenberg City 4000 has replaced a previous binding line. The line features inline PUR and hot melt glue. The addition of PUR met an increasing customer demand in the directory and manuals market.

The additional capacity created is significant, at least doubling press productivity, all of which has been achieved without changing production staffing. To fill the capacity Gait is recruiting up to two sales people.