Since taking delivery of a Fastbind CaseMatic H46 Pro casemaker, a Fotomount 46e lay flat binder and an Elite XT perfect binder, Prestige Press in Chesham has seen its sales opportunities grow.

Managing director Stuart Finn said: "We are using the new Fastbind equipment to enhance our marketing by producing short run samples and dummies.  When it comes to the creative side of our business, customers want to see a finished product before they place larger orders.

He said the company was increasingly targeting higher margin creative work with its new kit.

Prestige had a rocky time after an electrical fire in February last year destroyed its equipment and gutted its building. The company moved to temporary accommodation for 10 months and set about rebuilding. 

After taking stock, Prestige Press decided to move from a 50:50 litho digital split to going wholly digital and now operates an HP Design Jet Z6200 and Z6100 and two Konica presses – the C63000L and the C8000L. 

Finn discovered Fastbind when he met UK distributors Ashgate Automation at Drupa last year. He said the Elite XT binder offered great flexibility for hard and soft cover books for the price. The Fastbind Fotomount enables the company to produce customised binders and folders with digitally printed information and high quality ‘layflat’ presentations.

The three new machines were delivered in November 2012 but the company is only beginning to make use of them. So far the Elite XT perfect binder has seen the most use but the other two are beginning to come on board.

Print finisher Colin Nash said the Elite XT was a clever machine which had enabled the company to bring binding in-house.

"It’s new to us as we’ve never done perfect binding before. If the client asks for 10 booklets in the morning they can have it in the afternoon," he said. "Previously it was two or three days before they came back. It’s very useful to us."

The family business was started in 1979 and employs two other people aside from Finn and Nash.