Offset Printing

Tradeprint returns in record speed for second XL 106 long perfector

Wednesday 19. June 2013 - Just three months to the day from signing off its new Speedmaster XL 106-10-P, tradeprint returned to Heidelberg for a second XL 106 long perfector, this time an eight-colour. This is the fastest repeat order for the XL 106 in the UK to date, possibly the world.

“The first press did everything we expected and more. We had anticipated it being up to four times as productive as the SM 74-10P it replaced but in fact it has given us a five-fold increase. It runs all stocks at 15,000sph with makereadies of four to four and a half minutes which is ideal for the high volume of short runs we handle on a daily basis. Before 99.8% of orders went out on time; now we are hitting 100%,” says Rod Scrimgeour, managing director. “Quality and service is at the forefront of our minds in everything that we do. Redundancy across our infrastructure is of paramount importance to maintain our service levels. The second press fits into this ethos.”
“The landscape has changed and expensive price points are unsustainable. By having the best software systems, accessible online Web to print services and the best equipment we are able to attain the price points today’s trade market requires, while maintaining the quality and service our clients have come to expect. We are commodity, commercial printers combining many jobs per plate to maximise time and waste efficiency. That approach, combined with a clear business plan, is why we are in a position to invest for further rapid growth.”
The new press will be delivered in the summer. Having two replica presses, each equipped with Inpress Control (automating register and colour control on the fly) together with Autoplate XL plate-changing, means tradeprint.co.uk can benefit from matched quality and flexibility of manning.
The company is also upgrading its processors and adding lasers to its original Suprasetter 105 (it added a second with a Multi Cassette Loader at the end of last year) to increase the speed of output of its Saphira plates. That is critical to keeping two very hungry presses supplied for maximum performance when handling runs averaging just 2,000 and printing 5 SRA1 ganged jobs per hour.
“We believe the type of wide format companies attending Fespa could really benefit from diversifying, introducing new products to their customers and farming them out to us. Using our proprietary ordering system, resellers can basket multiple orders, in one single transaction while sending each order to a different end user customer, charging out at whatever price fits their business model. There is no contract or on-going fee.”
Tradeprint.co.uk anticipates their growth coming from this type of alliance and are evolving their portal interface to allow printers and other buyers to have further control of managing their jobs in the tradeprint system. “Our portal is an extension of our one click tracking system. Clients will be able to see at a glance all live jobs and action such things as changing delivery addresses, resupply artwork, and change any of their settings.”
As part of their massive investment programme which will total more than £8m this year tradeprint.co.uk are close to completing an extension of their offices. “We employ more software developers than we do print minders and have recently ‘beefed’ up our development team” explains Scrimgeour, “Investment is crucial to staying ahead of our competitors and is the key to our success”.