Marstan Press continues its digital expansion with Watkiss machines

Commercial printer Marstan Press has upgraded its growing digital department with a series of purchases from Watkiss Automation.

A Rigo perfect binder, a Morgana Docufold and a Watkiss bookletmaker with four-bin tower collator, fore-edge trim and square-back facility have all been installed at the Kent-based printer since Ipex.

The 50-staff company installed an Océ press in January 2009, followed by Xerox machines in October last year and April this year.

But director Martin Lett said the company had been finishing jobs on litho finishing equipment, which had not proved economical.

"Litho machines require 100-sheet run-offs before we start, which isn't very good when you only need 100 sheets," he said.

"Once the demand for digital was at the right level we decided to add the finishing equipment to back it up. We can now keep everything we do in-house."

About £500,000 of the company's £4.5m turnover now comes from its digital department. But Lett expects this figure to increase significantly in the future.