PIP Printing managing director Colin Rosen said he had considered adding photobooks to the firm's portfolio for over a year before concluding the £10,700 deal at Ashgate Automation’s open house event in Oxfordshire last week.

The company bought a Fastbind Casematic H46Pro large format casemaker, Fastbind Fotomount F46e large format lay-flat photobook maker, Fastbind Booxter Trio staple binder and a Matrix Duo 650 laminator.

Rosen said: "I knew we had to offer photobooks at some stage because it is a profitable market. It was simply a question of biting the bullet and making the investment."

The package has been bought to finish work printed on PIP’s Xerox 770 digital printer, which was installed in April. Rosen said the finishing equipment will enable the company to produce a variety of hard- and softback books in a range of sizes and spine widths to suit its customers’ price ranges.

Ashgate Automation will install the finishing equipment on Monday (16 July) in a two-day operation, during which staff will be trained on the machines. Ashgate Automation managing director John Price said that the equipment could have been delivered earlier but made-to-measure tables included in the package are currently being made in preparation for the installation.

Rosen said: "It has always been my policy to buy the equipment and learn how to get the best from it before we market it hard.

"Photobooks will be a priority but we will also make customised ring binders, presentation books and a variety of other books and cases as the opportunity arises."

Ashgate Automation’s open house also proved a day for sales leads as Rosen met Taopix UK managing director Neil Bather and has scheduled a further meeting to "seriously consider" investing in its photobook software.

He said: "We are having a follow-up in-depth demonstration of the Taopix photobook software in ten days with a view to buying it."

Ashgate Automation’s Price said: "It was a quality open house event and we had many buyers rather than just shoppers coming to see us.

"I am working on three or four potential sales and to have that many leads in a month simply from an open house is very good and shows the quality of the products we were demonstrating."