Describe your business
We are predominantly a trade printer – the biggest in East Anglia. We do a wide variety of work, from commercial colour to flat-sheet printing, such as brochures, leaflets and fliers. We also produce sprocket-fed continuous stationery so we do NCR sets and pads.

Why did you purchase the machine?
We do a lot of work for print management firms, who require fast turnarounds. Sending work out to trade finishers was taking too long, so to boost our productivity and to improve our quality we decided to bring more finishing in-house, which is why we bought this machine and a laminator. The Rollem also helps us reduce our waste.

Why did you choose this particular model?
We have a historical relationship with Rollem, but also the machine is made in this country, which means finding replacement parts is much easier.

Did you look at any other similar machines?
We looked at some of the other machines that were on show at Ipex, but the Rollem was the most competitively priced for what we wanted to do.

What features do you particularly like about the machine?
We had the perforating system put on it and it scores as well.

Is there anything that you dislike?
It requires two staff to operate it.

Is there anything you wish it had that it doesn’t have?
It needs a better feeder and catcher system. You should be able to just load it up and let it roll, but you can’t; when you load the sheets you need another person at the other end to catch them. You can’t put 500 or 1,000 sheets in at a time, you have to put 10 or 20 and then another 10 or 20.

How fast is it?
It runs at around 6,000-7,000 sheets per hour.

How reliable is it?
It’s very reliable and it’s quite a simple machine, so there’s not much to go wrong on it.

What’s the quality like?
It’s very well made.

Would you say that it has saved you any time or money?
Yes, we have saved time in sending out finishing work. That would normally have cost us a day or two.

Would you say that it offers value for money?
Yes.

Did the installation run to plan?
It went very well.

How was the pre- and after-sale service?
It’s been very good; Rollem has been very quick to respond with advice or extra perforations when we have asked. The back-up service is what has really sold us the machine.

Who do you think the machine is right for?
It would be really good for other printers working within the same fields.

Based on your own experience of using it would you recommend it to somebody else?
If it had an improved feeder, I would.

Under what circumstances would you buy another?
To replace this one if it wore out, or if I needed one to take a bigger sheet.