ThreeFiveFour ups productivity with Ricoh buy

Creative print and direct mail company ThreeFiveFour has invested £126,000 in a Ricoh Pro C9110 to increase its productivity and quality and improve its turnaround times.

The machine, which was installed at the Basildon-based firm’s 1,350sqm premises in January, has replaced a Xerox DocuColor 7000 and has also taken work from the company’s existing MGI Meteor DP8700 XL.

The Pro C9110 has a maximum recommended monthly volume of 1 million A4 pages and a print speed of 130ppm. The device supports media up to 400gsm in both simplex and duplex.

ThreeFiveFour creative print and direct mail mobile managing director Ian Drew said: “Over the three years that we had the MGI we did about 7 million clicks, but since we’ve had the Ricoh we’ve just about hit 2 million clicks. We’ve basically done a year’s work in just over two and a bit months.”

The business looked at alternatives from Konica Minolta, Xerox and HP but Drew said it went for the C9110 due to the combination of its price, quality, colour consistency and speed, as well as its ability to produce banner sheets.

“Everything about it has been really good, it’s done what it’s said on the tin since day one. The quality and the service is fantastic,” said Drew.

Off the back of the purchase the business has already won a new yearly contract with a large blue-chip company.

28-staff ThreeFiveFour, which is due to turn over around £3.8m this year, predominantly works for blue-chips and print management firms.

The company also operates equipment including a six-colour B1 Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102 and two Komoris – a B1 five-colour with coater and a six-colour B2 press – as well as a raft of direct mail and finishing kit.