Sample books, folders and CD covers made by John E Wright.

Print group John E Wright has found a new market by offering online photo product ordering, printing and finishing to university arts and graphics students.

John E Wright started offering photo books to the education market a couple of years ago in its Nottingham headquarters site. Demand quickly grew to the point that this summer it expanded operations to its Leicester branch. It uses Taopix software to allow customers to set up and order products online, with digital presses and a range of Fastbind dedicated finishing software in both branches, supplied by the UK distributor Ashgate Automation.

The company offers printing services through a network of UK branches stretching from Oxford to Hull and also has a equipment and consumables supply operation. Its move into photo products arose out of customer requirements, said Adrian Nicholls, group commercial and marketing manager. ‘We reached the conclusion that there was a significant market outside of the traditional photo book gift market within the educational environment where we are very strong,’ he explains. ‘Whilst we offered a good range of binding solution for projects, theses and dissertations, there was a significant gap for more creative visual presentations required by a number of arts and graphics courses.’


John E Wright started using Taopix Photobook online photo products ordering software (now called Portfolio) in January 2011, with printing on a Xerox DocuColor 7002 sheet-fed digital press. ‘Taopix provided the easy to use front end, but we needed a reliable and flexible binding and case making system to offer high quality hardback case bound and softback books and other products,’ said Mr Nicholls. ‘It was for this reason that we first turned to Ashgate.’

The company chose the BooXter Duo and Fastbind Casematic H46Pro. The BooXter Duobinder has a powerful electronic stapling unit and can produce books with hard or soft covers, paper covers, stripe backs and simple stapled binding from A6 to SRA3 formats.
With the Casematic H46 Pro table top machine the company can produce tailor made cases from CD size up to 1040 x 490 mm (when opened), with personalised digitally printed covers. It can also make personalised ring binders from CD size to A3 portrait and landscape. The H46 Pro includes an edge folding device for simpler hard cover making.
The covers use special self-adhesive paper that’s printed on an HP Designjet Z601 large format inkjet.

‘Ashgate installed the equipment, gave us the initial training and were there to support us if we needed advice,’ said Mr Nicholls. ‘However, we have a very competent production team and within a few days we were producing some excellent looking products, unlike anything we had been able to manufacture previously.’

Education tailored products
The company introduced education-related products such as hard case books for marketing projects and academic submissions, bespoke ring binders, slip cases, CD and DVD cases, storage boxes and certificate bindings.

‘With the large number of students active locally and not only those in their third year producing their final thesis, we found that we could offer products almost year round,’ Mr Nicholls explained. ‘This year’s spring term rush was exceptional, he says. ‘Not only were we inundated with our own customers but we had work submitted through our local branch network across the Midlands.’

This led to a need for more capacity as well as customer requests for thicker bindings and more cover options. So this summer John E Wright went to Ashgate again, for a Fastbind Elite XT perfect binder and another Casematic H46 Pro which went into the Leicester branch.

It’s also about to install a Xerox DocuColor 7002 and HP Designjet on that site to handle printing. ‘This has allowed us to decrease lead times for customers in Leicester for basic products and increase the capacity and product ranges in Nottingham,’ said Mr Nicholls.

‘The precision and simplicity of the Fastbind equipment have enabled us to look at projects that previously we would not have entertained,’ he continued. ‘In the last few weeks we produced a set of 15 binders of various depths, all to be fitted into slip cases, the largest being over 900 mm in width with ten separate storage slots. This prestigious and high value job would not have been achievable without our creative staff and the precision of the Casematic system. Over a five day period we produced seven sets of this
format, ensuring our client met the deadline for a critical international tender.

‘We are now open to a far wider range of enquiries and feel that we have found a new niche market for these added value services.’


Contact: www.johnewright.co.uk and www.ashgate.co.uk