Cost per copy was a major factor in Unite the Union’s decision to install a Riso ComColor X1 inkjet press earlier this year, but the speed and quality have been beneficial too.

Servicing about 120,000 of a total of 1.42 million members, Unite the Union’s Communications Department in Leeds is responsible for print, electronic and social media communications to members in the North East, Yorkshire & Humber Region.

Volumes can be substantial for a small print room staffed by just two people, and in the six weeks of a trial period using Riso’s ComColor X1 7150 inkjet printer earlier this year, some 180,000 impressions were made. This makes only a small dent in the system’s 400,000 copies per month duty cycle however.

The ComColor impressed sufficiently during that trial period for the installation to be made permanent, and the printing system is due to be joined by an integrated multi-finishing unit early in June 2014. The decision to sign for the ComColor following the successful trial was an easy one, according to Jonathan Crewe, one of the two print room staff in the Communications Department.

‘It was 10p per copy on our Canon copiers, and 1.2p per copy on the Riso – it’s a lot cheaper and three times as fast, so it was a no-brainer really. On the copiers, when we wanted 500 flyers it would take about half an hour and the ComColor does it in five minutes, so we’ve increased the speed and lowered the cost. It’s quite easy to use – after half an hour you will know your way around it – and for what we need it’s exceptional,’ he said.

What Unite needs the ComColor X1 for is a mixture of DM work, flyers, leaflets, and items such as placards in support of industrial action, and increasingly the demand is for colour print. There is not too much acquisition print to drive new memberships required, and jobs mostly come in from officers representing various community membership branches, with requests for mail shots, flyers and placards in support of disputes and ballots. The department also designs these documents. Print runs can be anything from 50 to 5000 copies.

The print room is comparatively well equipped for its size, according to Mr Crewe, with a black and white Riso printer for envelopes and various pieces of kit for collating, bookletmaking and inserting.

Mr Crewe’s opinion is that the quality of prints from ComColor systems has improved immensely since the range was first launched. The union trialled one of the printers at that time but did not pursue it then. The quality is now certainly good enough for the kind of work that the department is called upon to produce.

Unite has used Riso machines for many years, and Mr Crewe described the supplier as ‘absolutely spot on’. The case for the Riso ComColor X1 7150 press had to be made to the regional manager. ‘We got prices on the trial, figures on what we can save through it, and it just makes sense,’ Mr Crewe continued. ‘Any move that saves us money without losing quality, it has got to be made. At the end of the day we are still a company that deals with members’ money so we cannot be frivolous with that. We saved about £3000 over the six week trial period.’

There is about to be more good news for the union’s members in the North East, Yorkshire & Humber region, in the form of a mail shot to all 120,000 of them advising that they can get 100% back on PPI claims submitted through Unite. The Communications Department will be able to print blank envelopes on the ComColor press, rather than paying £22 per box of pre-printed envelopes, saving itself around £10 per box, Mr Crewe estimates. Unite’s members can therefore be sure that their subscriptions are being used wisely in the print room.