Colourfast Financial Ltd has added a Konica Minolta bizhub PRESS C1100 colour digital production print system and two bizhub PRESS 1250P mono presses to its production armoury, an investment designed to support the firm's growth strategy.
The Basildon-based firm is now the largest single-site user of Konica Minolta digital production presses in the UK, installing this new equipment brings the total fleet size to six mono and five colour systems.
Established six years ago, Colourfast Financial specialises in producing documentation for the financial sector from complex Initial Public Offerings (IPOs), to fast turnaround business compliance documents that are distributed to global financial markets. Of its £2.2 million annual turnover, sales from the City sit at around £1.8 million, with the balance coming from the commercial sector.
This latest investment forms an integral part of a three-year growth strategy that will see it increase revenues from the commercial market to £1 million, representing a massive 150% increase.
"With the new colour press which delivers outstanding 1200dpi, we're looking to really push into the commercial market," said Colourfast Financial Managing Director Darren Bacon. "It's a slower process breaking into this new sector, but we're proactively marketing our business and doors are beginning to open."
Five years ago 75% of the firm's work was produced on litho presses but today, 90% of jobs are output on the Konica Minolta digital print systems. "The work we do brings a new meaning to the term fast turnaround," said Bacon. "Typically we have 24-36 hours to turnaround an individual project, time is very much of the essence, as much of what we produce has to be flown out to the US, Far East and across Europe, so the quicker we can get copies off the press and shipped, the better.
"Say we're running off 500 copies of a 300 page document, with litho we're looking at a minimum of 24 hours, but by utilising the digital press we can complete it in under ten. The other big advantage of digital is that we're producing from the first hour, binding as we go along," he added.
The new equipment will deliver additional capacity and improve productivity for the firm which has almost all its existing presses running full capacity. "We've now got capacity to cope with additional workload, to accommodate unexpected workload peaks and the new presses also provide us with a business continuity back-up plan in the event of unforeseen downtime," explained Bacon.
The firm also does all the finishing in-house. "We used to outsource it but we weren't in control. Managing the entire production process from start to finish makes us much faster, and means that when we agree a delivery time, we meet it, as we're not reliant on a third-party," he said.
"When we set up six years ago, we looked at a lot of different digital press vendors," explained Bacon. "But Konica Minolta were the only manufacturer who demonstrated they really wanted to be a part of our business. We've added to the fleet over the years and have a superb working relationship. The equipment exactly meets our needs; quality and consistency is excellent and really reliable. As a 24/7 operation, maximum uptime is mission-critical, we have to deliver on our customers' SLAs and need a partner we can really rely on."
Bacon also said that further investment is on the cards. "We have lots of plans for future expansion and Konica Minolta will be with us on that journey."
Konica Minolta's Digital1234 business development program is designed to encourage print businesses to focus on the opportunities to save money, increase profits, add new services and to improve productivity. Using four practical steps the customer is guided and coached on how to identify, assess, justify and implement new business opportunities.
www.konicaminolta.co.uk
