Pressroom
21 Colour debuts in long perfecting production
Thursday 10. March 2011 - Glasgow printer 21 Colour is on the brink of taking delivery of its first long perfector. The business to business specialist is replacing two five year old MAN Roland 500s (a 5- plus coat and a 6- plus coat) with a Speedmaster XL 75-10-P, including Inpress Control automated colour and register adjustment and Prinect Pressroom Manager workflow.
Managing director Trevor Price says: “The two to one press swap will give us at least 20% more capacity and, combined with Inpress Control, reduces start up paper waste from about 800 sheets for a work and turn 8pp section down to 150-250 sheets. It also reduces our ink and chemistry usage, repair costs and our manning. Four staff are leaving, giving us a retained team of 45. Critical to our decision was the reliability of the press and visiting rival sites we were told again and again that the XL 75 was a press that hardly ever breaks down.”
21 Colour did look at all the press options before deciding to go with Heidelberg. The management team was able to give finance houses a convincing case for the purchase and that allowed them to secure good funding. “We told them the running costs of our two existing B2 presses and the reasons for buying the Speedmaster and they were convinced and given the resale value of the Speedmaster it is little risk for them,” says Mr Price.
Trevor Price and sales director Philip Cole bought the family run company in 1998 but at the turn of the century it saw massive changes in its buyer portfolio. With companies like General Accident bought by Norwich Union and Scottish Widows by Lloyds TSB, United Distillers moving its corporate headquarters to Surrey the company was forced to extend the area it served beyond Scotland. So today only half of its business is from there with England accounting for close to 40% of its turnover and Ireland a further 10%.
Most of its work is direct although it does handle contracts from two print management companies. With Inpress Control and Pressroom Manager it has closed loop colour and following on from the installation is undertaking Heidelbergs ISO 12647-2 certification which it hopes to achieve by May. It already holds ISO 9001 quality, ISO 140001 environmental, FSC and PEFC certification. These it says are tools increasingly required to qualify for tenders and to keep work from companies with a Corporate Responsibility strategy but they also help 21 Colour save money by working efficiently and often with set procedures.
Mr Cole has also just spear-headed the launch of a new business to consumer initiative. Photofunkit.co.uk promotes photobooks, photocards and calendars, an initiative that made Heidelbergs presentation with Web 2 Print specialist Red Tie and Colour 21s MIS supplier Tharstern especially interesting.