host posted on July 05, 2011 18:22
Portsmouth-based Bishops Printers is investing £900,000 in a Wohlenberg City e 16-station perfect binder, supplied by exclusive UK agent Friedheim International. The new PUR machine is being purchased in response to a change in the way football club programmes are produced.
Bishops currently prints programmes for 12 Premier League and Football League clubs, including Chelsea and Arsenal, and according to marketing manager Simon Brinsmead, the move from saddle-stitched to perfect bound programmes is designed to "increase the perceived value". As a result, this has seen the company's outsourcing of perfect and PUR binding increase from £15,000 to £30,000 a month.
Managing director Gareth Roberts says: "The disproportionately increasing quantity of our business which is perfect or PUR bound means that the timing of this purchase has been brought forward from my original plan of early next year.
"The machine will not only eradicate our monthly outwork spend of nearly £30,000 per month, but will also bring about greater flexibility and efficiencies by bringing the service in-house."
The new Wohlenberg City e binding line will be installed in early July, ahead of the 2011/12 football season. It is capable of handing a maximum product width of 320mm and maximum height of 370mm, and can run at up to 6,000 cycles per hour. The investment also includes a 16-station collator, allowing it to run jobs up to 256 pages, as well as a three-knife trimmer.