A modernisation programme to re-position Tristar Printers as a value added service provider has seen the company purchase a Horizon StitchLiner 5500 fully automated saddlestitching line.
The investment was made in reaction to its clients struggling in the economic recession. Director Abu Ahmed, said, ‘A lot of customers have gone bust, or reduced their printing needs, and runs have become shorter so we are not getting the same kind of volumes. There are also companies offering silly prices that we cannot see as being sustainable, we don’t want to get involved with a price war.’
‘We needed to find ways to work smarter and not try to do what everyone else is doing. Before the recession we were working a lot with trade companies and design agencies. Now we are looking more into niche markets such as prayer timetables, as well as ways of developing our print on demand capabilities. We are looking at the possibility of adding web to print too. Importantly we want to focus on value added print so we can create better gross margins.’
To implement this new strategy, the fully automated 11,000 books per hour StitchLiner, with two VAC-Turbo 60 six station collators, was chosen to replace a SPF-FC20.
The machine features an icon-based colour touch screen and can set-up in less than two minutes. It has the ability to work from flat four page sections, eliminating the need for separate bindery stages to be undertaken. Its integral three-knife trimming station means there is no need to pre-fold into signatures or pre-trim top and tail, resulting in significant time, waste and energy savings.
Mr Ahmed concluded, ‘We have only had it a month but jobs have just flown through it. Runs that took days in the past are now done in hours. We can easily complete runs of one or runs of 5,000. We can also stop longer run work and complete shorter jobs before going back to the long run. Now there is no need for us to outsource anything and that makes us faster and more productive, and cuts costs.’
A Horizon StitchLiner 5500 fully automated saddlestitching line
