Offset Printing
TLG invests in additional sheetfed capacity
Friday 20. November 2009 - The Lettershop Group is this month installing a Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102-5+L, a five-colour with coater and infrared dryer, to replace two of its older B1 Speedmasters. It is a nine for six unit replacement but will give the Leeds operation a big increase in productivity and versatility.
“This is a catch up for sheetfed,” says chief executive John Hornby. “Normally we change our presses every seven to ten years but in recent years our investment focus has been on web and personalisation.”
“It is testament to Heidelberg engineering that two of our older presses have continued to work so reliably. But now we will benefit from increased efficiency, closed loop colour and fast plate change. The new press, with pile turners, will be a one man machine where before it was 1.5 per press. Operators work across the different presses so the knowledge and experience is very strong and they can easily be redeployed.”
The company produces a variety of applications for the fmcg, financial services, retail, fashion and mail order markets. The 120 year old company has a long history in direct mail and sophisticated, high-tech inline production. Today it also produces millions of clever magazine insert formats for the media and publishing sectors.
With the new press the company will be able to develop further applications on heavier stocks, beyond the 200gsm limit on the companys M-600 and M-110 web presses, as well as offering shorter run fragrance applications.
The press will run at the companys impressive 140,000 sq ft, 12 acre facility in Leeds. This is the main European production hub for the group. The company also has marketing support services in Cirencester and a digital personalisation operation in the centre of Paris.
TLG are high quality minded and have long had a reputation for leading technical developments in marketing collateral and personalisation.
The Lettershop was one of the first companys in the UK to achieve FSC accreditation and it recently added ISO 14001 to that and is now working towards ISO 27001, covering data and the environment. The company offers an environmental advice sheet on its web site.
TLG offers an extremely wide range of personalisation and finishing capabilities including die-cutting, pop-ups, tip-ons, varnishes, direct mail, embossing, and multi colour personalisation across a range of technology. The company is versatile but also recognises it is there to help end users to develop ideas and marketing applications to communicate effectively through a range of media channels.