The new £1.2m unit, two years in development, came online in late April with four Nilpeter flexo label lines, new press included.
Adding 930sqm to Aztec’s existing 1,860sqm facility, the new unit will be dedicated to high-volume label work, an income stream that the firm has been steadily developing over the past eight years.
“The idea is to make it a dedicated site for that work. It’s really good volumes, but itty bitty jobs, and you have to do a lot of it for it to pay. We’ll be knocking out several billion labels out of this site,” Aztec Labels managing director Colin Le Gresley told Printweek.
The latest machine marks the firm’s tenth purchase from Nilpeter, a milestone even if several were purchased from Nilpeter subsidiary Rotopress – and despite the fact that the firm’s tenth purchase will be in fact its ninth Nilpeter machine.
“We actually bought one of the machines twice!,” Le Gresley explained.
“I bought it new, then traded it in seven years later to buy a newer one – it went out into the market, and I actually bought it years later as a secondhand machine, bringing it back to the factory.”
Le Gresley opted to go for a secondhand machine for the latest press as well.
“We are looking for future investment, but like for everybody else at the moment, there’s this guy called Trump that’s messing everything up,” he said, referring to the global economic uncertainty from the US’ back-and-forth approach to aggressive import tariffs.
“I could spend 15 times the amount [spent on a secondhand machine] on a new machine, so by buying secondhand it staves off a massive investment for another year or two.
“In the mid-term, we’re looking to achieve substantial growth, probably 50% on top of our current turnover.”
Currently turning over £6.3m with 30 staff, Le Gresley will assign a team of 10 to handle work at the new facility.
“I’ll be looking to committing to [hiring] some more people very soon,” he added.
For the first time in 30 years of operation, the trade-only firm has recently begun the process of accreditation to help expand its potential customer base and open up new doors for growth.
“I’ve decided I’m going to toe the line: we’ve recently got ISO accreditations, 9001 and 14001, and we’re most of the way through BRC accreditation. We’re waiting to finish the new site so we can get assessed at both at the same time. That food accreditation, for us, is the door-opening opportunity that will increase our turnover,” Le Gresley said.
“We like to be at the top end of the middle of the market, but we’re geared up for the high quality market too, we just haven’t stepped into it.”
