"The DC-545HCEX has enabled us to expand into A6 greetings cards and postcards," said managing director Nick Jenkins.

The DC-545HCEX trims, cuts and creases in one pass. It can produce finished products down to 50x90mm and store up to 80 jobs and also boasts image drift compensation to reduce wastage. "For finishing greetings cards it cannot be beaten," said Jenkins.

Prior to the 9,500 Duplo going in, the internet-based firm used a rotary slitter/creaser for standard A5 cards and a hand scorer for A4. However, the rotary system's one-hour makeready time for changing card format limited the firm's offering.

"We can now programme settings and switch between jobs with no set-up time," said Jenkins. He added that the increased format flexibility had given the firm a "significant uplift in sales" as well as massive savings in the cost of finishing A4 cards.

"In three months it will have paid for itself through sales of the new products we can  now offer," said Jenkins.

Story by Darryl Danielli