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million cards a year for 420 charities.” It is this volume of work
that has underwritten the investment in the ten-colour 102 and a
greetings card sheet was the first job through the press last month.
“Elle was the catalyst that gave us reason to expand,” says James.
The large press did not come from Page, which like FM had been
a B2 printer. James Cuthbert explains that FM had started out
looking for a six-colour B1 press as the type of machine that would
be ideal for greetings card printing. When a deal fell through, FM
started looking for an eight-colour and then on the suggestion of
an existing customer that a ten-colour would attract short run
magazine work, the quest switched to a ten-colour B1 press.
THIS WAS MORE DIFFICULT THAN EXPECTED. Having looked
at machines in Berlin and Barcelona, the machine it ended up
with was located just down the road in Grays where the owner
was moving the B1 out for a second B2 press that it had bought
from a failed UK printer. The deal was done on the spot, the press
moved directly to the new factory where it was stripped, cleaned
and assembled in place. Three weeks after the press was running,
Komori’s team was due to move the B2 machine from the original
unit alongside the larger press. The B1 format MBO is in place as
are a Longford folder for the greetings card work, guillotines, die
cutting Cylinder and the new platesetter. There are thoughts about
adding more digital capacity to join the KM6501.
Next comes the tidying up of the area, painting the floor and
outdoor fascias to match the quality of the office area which has
already been completed. A new MIS, being developed on the
PDQ estimating system is being installed with a module to
PROFILE
“We have already gained some work from
existing customers because we can now
take on larger projects,” says FM Print’s
James Cuthbert.
calculate greetings cards work, where jobs from different
customers can be planned up on the same sheet. “We have been
using the estimating system for 18 months and have just moved
to the full MIS system that they are developing,” says James.
“Because we are the first to do this, they are doing a lot to make
sure that it offers exactly what we need. It is going to fit our
business model and in the long term we anticipate massive
benefits.” The ability to gang multiple cards on a sheet and assign
a cost to each is an important feature that is under development.
THE MOVE TO THE LARGER FORMAT is bringing more
diversity to the client base and more opportunities for existing
clients. All at once a 48pp brochure which might be priced to the
bone on the B2 press makes a lot more sense when printed as a
three section job on the larger sheet.
“We have already gained some work from existing customers
because we can now take on larger projects,” says James
Cuthbert. “Our focus will be firstly about expanding our presence
in the charity market by offering more types of print to the 420
charities that we print cards for and to target other charities with
greetings cards and then for other commercial work where we
could previously only handle smaller jobs.”
There is no dash to fill the new machine regardless. The plan
allows for a gradual build up of work. Minders will be trained to
cover either of the presses depending on the loading for that shift.
The Komori is already balanced to print to ISO 12647-2 standards
using Bodoni PressSign software. The intention is to do the same
with the Heidelberg once it has fully bedded in.
FM also runs to ISO 14001, being one of the first in the
country with the environmental management standard. It has led
this certificate since 1997 and its impact on the business is clear:
one of the first pieces of equipment in the new plant was a central
waste extraction system. The choice of the Agfa Azura TS plate
also falls in line with the environmental print approach. Should
customers require it, FM can also calculate the carbon footprint
of any job on the estimating system and offset this.
THE ENVIRONMENT HAS BECOME second nature for the
printer and is not thrust down the customer’s throat. Practicality
wins out. One of the first benefits to one of the charity customers
has been to switch from a recycled paper to an FSC grade with
FM holding a year’s supply. The charity is saving tens of
thousands of pounds as result.
It is an approach that has FM Print at the forefront of the
changing industry, but with its roots firmly established through
many years of experience. These are the foundations that will
help the company grow in its next phase of development. n
www.printbusinessmagzine.co.uk May 2011 27