The company is just finishing a £1 million extension to the existing site which joins the existing paper warehouse and main factory together, giving the company another 1600 sqm of operational space.
“After 6 months of construction, the new site is just about complete, the floor is down and the building is watertight. There is still some work to do on the internals but most importantly we have done enough so that we are ready to take delivery of some new equipment arriving in January”.
The new building will house a new short-run print division as the business looks to grow in this area. As well as additional manufacturing space the new area will have a dedicated storage and fulfilment area as the business is starting to do more of this type of work alongside the direct mail setup.
Cross says “We are seeing more customers who want a solution and not just a printer so it is important we can accommodate this with a dedicated area that is properly setup”.
The company has purchased a Canon IX3200 Inkjet Press. This will significantly increase capacity of the short run print division as well as deliver outstanding quality at competitive prices. The press will be delivered in January and will be fully operational 24 hours a day by February.
Cross says “It was a hard decision on who to partner with as we were presented with some excellent options. However, we were really impressed with the IX and we are looking forward to working with Canon”.
Whilst the company needed to replace a cut sheet digital device everyone involved also took the opportunity to look at continuous digital during the process.
Cross says “We are excited to see where the continuous digitalis going and what it has to offer in terms of quality, efficiency and automation. This is something that is firmly on our radar”.
To bolster binding capacity the business has also purchased a Horizon CABS4000V. This is a highly automated machine that will significantly increase short run binding capacity but with a gathering line as well it will act as a hybrid machine that will handle litho work as well as digital. The new binding line is set to be installed in Spring 2024.
Finally the company has ordered an additional automated TH82 P Stahlfolder which will be delivered next month.
Cross says “This will help ease bottlenecks in busy periods. We have spare capacity in the presses but there was no point pushing them harder if we couldn’t fold the work. This will change that”.
It is likely the company will also invest in an automated stack down system for the folder like on the end of their existing folders but no decisions have been made at this stage.
Micropress employs 182 people with sales this year of £30 million.
Cross says “We are thrilled to announce this substantial investment, which reflects our commitment to providing printing solutions to our valued customers”.
