Potts Print UK invests in finishing

Cramlington, Northumberland-based digital and litho printer Potts Print UK has made a £230,000 investment in a new Horizon SPF-FC/200L bookletmaker and a Perfecta 132 TS Flowline guillotine.

The bookletmaker was installed in the middle of May, replacing an outgoing Horizon SPF-20, and the guillotine will go in later this month.

Potts production director Brian Watson said: “We’ve got two iGens and have had Horizons for years. The iGens print on XXL sheet size, which allows for short-run A4 landscape books, so that’s why we went for the landscape version, to accommodate for short-run digital work.

“We went down to see it and it was immediately a bit of a no-brainer really, we know how well they work, how well they suit and how reliable they are.”

The new bookletmaker has been purchased with two VAC 100 collators. It can produce brochures at speeds of up to 4,500bph and takes A4 landscape sheets of length up to 610mm. It is JDF-ready and has an icon-based colour touchscreen. It can also store up to 200 jobs. 

“It will give more flexibility for our customers and is able to turnaround jobs faster. It just helps with the daily workload really, it’s a massive help and gives us added value that we can pass on to our customers,” added Watson. 

He also said that the new Perfecta 132 had a faster cutting speed and quicker makeready than the previous model.

The investment follows on from a March purchase of a Horizon AFC-566F folder, which Watson said had been far better than the company initially thought it would be.

Last year, Potts Print became the first Carbon Balanced Paper certified printer in the North East. It also recently invested in a new warehouse, approximately 450m away from its current site.

In March of this year its chief executive Michael Sanford-Couch stepped down after 20 years at the helm to become executive chairman.

It runs two B1 Manroland 700s, two B2 Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75s and a Speedmaster SM 52, as well as nine Xerox digital presses. It has 170 staff and a turnover of more than £15m.