Offset Printing
RGL Print Group Turns Green with Alcohol Free Komori
Friday 01. February 2008 - RGL Print Group Turns Green with Alcohol Free Komori and FSC/PEFC Accreditation
Redmond Graphics has replaced two Heidelbergs with a five colour Komori Lithrone S40 + Coater after being dazzled by its performance during a rigorous testing procedure. Managing director Maurice Champion arranged demonstrations with a number of press manufacturers as part of a £2 million investment programme in the latest press, repro and finishing equipment, following an 18 month planning process to ensure that all new kit generates the optimum results. Champion comments: “We needed a press that could make ready and print consistently from one image to the next and achieve the exact colours our customers need each and every time. We insisted on demonstrations which replicated work conditions and gave a number of manufacturers the same demanding jobs; seven different high quality posters using the same reflex blue. By lunchtime Komori had done all seven jobs and the spectrophotometer had got the ink to the right blue within 30 sheets. The press does exactly what Komori says it does, during the testing it didnt mark or track and the smoothness was perfect. This, accompanied with our FSC and PEFC accreditations, ensures we are responding proactively to our customers needs and increasingly high Corporate Social Responsibility standards.”
RGL Print Group incorporates several print companies. Husband and wife team Maurice and Cathy have achieved expansion year on year, enjoying significant growth over the past five years. The group turned over £3 million last year and owns an impressive portfolio of 600 customers including Nottingham Forest football club, Office Depot, Vision Express and Derbyshire Building Society. Work ranges from short run luxury brochures to stationery, business cards, direct mail and reward cards, and specialist finishing including gluing and die cutting.
The team of thirty staff at RGL knows all about working to tight deadlines and fast turnaround. They print all Nottingham Forests football programmes; the artwork comes in on Thursday and is turned around ready for the match on Saturday. They are also suppliers to Derbyshire Building Society and act as a stock control and distribution service as well as printing their brochures and POS material. A few years ago the lead time on one of these jobs would have been a week but today Redmonds receives the file on a Tuesday and the printed material is in branches all over the country before the weekend.
Champion continues: “Our press operators love the spectrophotometer which has changed the way we make ready. For a small family run business it is morale boosting to be using state of the art technology. We upgraded the Komori six colour B2 press to KMS4 to improve make ready and ensure compatibility. The plates are automatically punched, it takes ten minutes to amend plates from repro, and theyre back on the press in another ten minutes. Ad hoc improvements can be made easily now we have this level of automation. Our new plant list has been chosen after thorough research to reduce handling and manpower. The new press runs alcohol-free, heats part of the direct mail room through special vents, and will greatly increase productivity and remove finishing bottlenecks. Now that we are FSC and PFEC accredited the whole process is very appealing to customers required to produce print with the environment best protected at an affordable cost.”
Champion concludes: “The Komori buying process ran very smoothly; the installation plans drawn up were achievable and worked fantastically, and the finance process was flexible and seamless. Everyone representing Komori has been helpful and full of facts.”
Alongside the new B1 press, RGL has invested in a new guillotine, folders and stitching line and spent £200K on pre-press and repro. The company specialises in specialist finishing and offers a design service, variable data personalisation and complete direct mail operation.
Steve Turner, Komori General Sales Manager (North) comments: “I think that when Maurice first showed us the print tests he wanted to see on the LS40 he was fairly sure that none of the presses under consideration would be capable of reaching the exact colour match quickly and efficiently. The Komori KHS pre-inking and de-inking system performed just as we had described it would, achieving colour in a few sheets, job after job. KHS proves time and again, both in demonstrations and in numerous production situations, that makeready waste can be reduced to the absolute minimum, a pre-requisite for improving margins and reducing the environmental impact of the printing process.”