The Essex facility currently has six 12-colour B1 presses, including four SM 102 and two XL 105 presses. It's seventh 12-colour, the second of three 18,000sph XL 106's ordered at Drupa (the other two of which are 10 colours), will be installed by Christmas.
Anton Group finishing manager Dan Godbold said: "Every single one of our sheets has to go out to the folders or stitchers and with the many presses we have, there are a lot of pages to process.
"We have also seen an increase in two-page leaflet jobs, which we run at 16- or 24-up, needing more cuts per sheet. Each of these stay in the guillotine for longer, so we bought another one to avoid the production line getting clogged up."
The company has added four new staff to its 360-strong workforce, to oversee the new Polar 137, all of whom have a wealth of experience in running guillotines.
Anton Group bindery manager Michelle Knight said: "You still need an eyes- and hands-on approach because although finishing is more automated, it is not an exact science."
She added that the company had bought five of the same guillotine because "the throughput of the Polar is better than anything we have seen on the market."
The company also brought in a Stitchmaster ST 450 in May and an MBO T960 folder four months ago, which enables the company to produce four-page A5 booklets on a 4-up basis, pushing production speeds to 100,000 folded sheets an hour.
The MBO T960 has a Pallamides stacker attached to the back to reduce the amount of manual assistance needed, and Godbold said he was looking into invest in a couple of extra folders and another Pallamides in the near future.
He said: "We are trying to get the best and latest technology to make money by running production faster than the competition. [Beating the competition] can only be done by increasing volumes nowadays."
