The company invested £80,000 in a Dyss X5 digital cutting table, which is currently being shipped and £160,000 Durst P10 flatbed digital press installed three weeks ago.
The investments are part of a drive to explore new markets at the 18-staff York-based company, which has a turnover nearing £2m.
Managing director and owner David Willis said the Dyss provided the missing link between guillotines and die-cutters, and would reduce outsourcing costs and inefficient working.
He said of the Durst: “It’s faster, higher quality and increases capacity. Sales will grow with it. It will make us more efficient and help with lead times. We’re a very busy business and we’re looking to reduce lead times all the time.”
Both buys were purchased with cash reserves.
S&D, which is increasingly moving into large-format digital POS work, has a UK-wide reach of clients including retailers and manufacturers as well as some politicians – Willis said the company had done “quite a lot of election work” in the run up to 7 May.
In October, S&D acquired online sticker specialist Edge Stickers for an undisclosed sum, after Willis saw potential for expansion and cross-selling opportunities to Edge’s huge UK-wide customer base, as well as clear cost savings by merging the two operations at S&D’s 2,300sqm premises.
Willis said: “It was a small business and a good business. They did their own printing but they were doing it in a laborious way. But the website, edgestickers.co.uk, had got to the top of the Google rankings; it’s a really clever website. Traditionally we’ve worked on face-to-face referrals and good old-fashioned customer service. We didn’t have an online offering as we didn’t need one. Now we’re looking to take our other business online in a similar way so we can take advantage of online.”
He added: “We can now also offer the larger clients more helpful, personal account management, rather than dealing with a faceless online company.”
Willis has engaged Edge Stickers’ former owner Matt Cooke as a consultant and Cooke is now building a new website for S&D, which has been in business
The spend on both the Dyss digital cutter and Durst digital press will add to the company’s existing print and finishing fire-power, and give much needed extra capacity to the 28-year-old business.
