“We are 50% faster and that has significantly increased our capacity. Our turnaround times are much faster. The systems will easily pay for themselves in a couple of years,” said managing director Gary Ross, who invested in a Horizon BQ470 EVA/PUR perfect binder and a Horizon HT30 three-side trimmer.

According to Ross, following the installation of the binding line, the firm can now take orders in the morning that are ready the next day or even the same afternoon.

The Essex business, which had an old Horizon BQ270 perfect binder, could complete EVA binding but had to send out PUR work. Ross installed the kit in January and said the impact was immediate.

Ross declined to disclose the cost of the equipment or company turnover but said he expected to add 25% to the latter in 12 to 18 months.

“We were doing a bit of EVA but they were small jobs. Now we can do PUR as well as EVA hotmelt, and do longer runs. Hopefully this will bring in other bits and bobs such as laminated covers.”

His company has used Horizon kit since 2009 and rated its engineering and robustness. And being fairly local to Horizon’s UK agent IFS meant “we don't have to drag an engineer from half way around the country if needed.”

He said the stand-out feature was automation, speeding up setup and job changes.

“We knew that Horizon systems are robust, easy to use and fast to set up. That made the decision easy. It was the right machine to buy.

“We have a lot of covers come in that need PUR binding and wanted to bring it all in house, take control of the turnaround costs and save time and money on sending work out.”

His 20-year-old firm in Witham offers die cutting, laminating, foiling, binding, embossing and spot UV. The six staff set-up runs Heidelberg foiling, Sakurai spot UV, and Paperplast lamination kit.

The Horizon BQ-470 is suited to mid-range soft-back book production with higher production speeds, instant make readies for runs of one.

It can bind up to 65mm thickness and offers fully automated set-up through an icon-based LCD touchscreen.

The Horizon HT30 three-side trimmer features automated job set-ups and quick changeovers with the ability to store up to 40 different book jobs in the memory.

It operates off-line to trim perfect bound books at speeds up to 200 cycles per hour. A colour touchscreen allows all set-ups to be performed with full automation.