Printworks North outgrows litho plant

Litho printer Printworks North is to open a wide format plant in Wakefield following successful diversification into the market.

The litho printer has taken on the 560sqm plant to accommodate the growing number of wide-format machines at its 280sqm Wetherby branch.

Printworks North sales and marketing director Ben Johnson said: "The main area for growth we see is the wide-format side of our business.

"We have a dedicated wide-format area now in our Wetherby plant but because our litho is growing as well we are having an overspill into that area so the next logical step is to move that over into our new premises and set up a dedicated site for jobs like vehicle graphics and wallpaper designs."

The company diversified into wide-format in February 2011, when it took on its Mimaki CVJ30-60. Initially, the team were outsourcing banners to a firm in Essex but wanted to increase its control over lead-time as its volume of orders grew.

Johnson said: "We had the volume to make the machine self-sufficient so chose to take the opportunity to gain some experience in the market."

The company is now looking to invest in an HP Scitex FB500 by the end of 2012 to expand the range of substrates it is able to work with.

However, he added that litho was its "bread and butter" and said that the offering of both litho and wide-format from one business would give customers confidence that delivery times could be met.

The Printworks team also acquired a two-colour Ryobi 522HE press in August to support the vast amount of monochrome work it was producing on the five-colour Ryobi 525GE which was installed in December 2011.

Managing director Paul Johnson said the two-colour press was printing international language booklets with runs up to 90,000 a day, outputting nearly 50% of the company’s business.

The company has seen its turnover double year-on-year over the past three years and hopes to achieve a further 40% growth to £1.6m this year.