News
Record investment and UK first for APS Group
Print Management Services provider APS Group has strengthened its commitment to manufacturing by being the first company in the UK to purchase on the same order two ten-colour ROLAND 700 sheet-fed presses with InlinePerfector.
This major investment is part of the organisation's strategy to differentiate itself in the market place; to offer a wide range of print management services in addition to providing best-in-class manufacturing.
The recent purchase has also notched up another record for the Cheshire-based organisation - it is the first UK print manufacturer running Roland 700 perfecting presses alcohol free.
APS took the decision to buy not one but two new presses because it needed to boost production capacity, the result of acquiring major new accounts, promising new business in the pipeline and increased work from existing customers.
Cid Thomas, Director, said: "APS has grown significantly in the last two years which has led to an unprecedented demand from both new and existing clients for marketing related print. Our customers expect us to be able to respond to the challenging requirements of their marketing objectives and in addition to being able to arrange outsourcing through our print hub, it became increasingly evident that we needed to increase our own onsite manufacturing capability.
"We have a 30 year association with Man Roland so we approached them first. We did investigate other suppliers but manroland offered us such a good deal on a second press that we decided to take up the offer - unquestionably the right decision because since the two machines were installed they have never been idle.
"The installation went smoothly. There were no problems and the first press was running at 11,000 copies per hour for the first job we printed in training, quite exceptional considering the maximum speed is 12,000 copies." Print Manager, Ian Duddle, who spearheads the company's environmental strategy, added that the presses had to pass a rigorous environmental assessment.
"Our existing presses run alcohol free fount and so we expected, from day one, this to be the same for the new ones. We are pleased to report this was the case and we experienced no problems.
"As part of our commitment to environmental good practice and as part of the print floor investment we also installed a central ink pumping system which reduces waste and cuts down further the VOC emissions."
Both presses are equipped with manroland's ColorPilot system which is run in conjunction with ISO 12647-2 because colour management is vitally important to APS.
As Ian explains: "The nature of the majority of work means that we have to be able to provide total consistency of brand and image across the full range of marketing collateral. ColorPilot attends to automatic calibration and displays any deviations on the screen in less than 14 seconds."
APS has had the two presses fully prepped for the InlineSheeter option - manroland's press format make switching between sheeter and normal cut sheets a simple process.
Gary Doman, Director of Sales for Sheetfed and Finishing Equipment at Man Roland GB, said: This is a prestigious order for manroland. While the APS Group has been a valued customer of ours for many years there are no longer any guarantees in this business that clients will stay with an existing supplier.
"We would expect APS to look at the product offerings from all leading suppliers and we are, of course, delighted that manroland was selected as the supplier again.
"We are now playing our part in supporting APS's manufacturing division which is one of the most modern, productive and environmentally friendly press rooms in the UK."
Record investment and UK first for APS Group
Print Management Services provider APS Group has strengthened its commitment to manufacturing by being the first company in the UK to purchase on the same order two ten-colour ROLAND 700 sheet-fed presses with InlinePerfector.
This major investment is part of the organisation's strategy to differentiate itself in the market place; to offer a wide range of print management services in addition to providing best-in-class manufacturing.
The recent purchase has also notched up another record for the Cheshire-based organisation - it is the first UK print manufacturer running Roland 700 perfecting presses alcohol free.
APS took the decision to buy not one but two new presses because it needed to boost production capacity, the result of acquiring major new accounts, promising new business in the pipeline and increased work from existing customers.
Cid Thomas, Director, said: "APS has grown significantly in the last two years which has led to an unprecedented demand from both new and existing clients for marketing related print. Our customers expect us to be able to respond to the challenging requirements of their marketing objectives and in addition to being able to arrange outsourcing through our print hub, it became increasingly evident that we needed to increase our own onsite manufacturing capability.
"We have a 30 year association with Man Roland so we approached them first. We did investigate other suppliers but manroland offered us such a good deal on a second press that we decided to take up the offer - unquestionably the right decision because since the two machines were installed they have never been idle.
"The installation went smoothly. There were no problems and the first press was running at 11,000 copies per hour for the first job we printed in training, quite exceptional considering the maximum speed is 12,000 copies." Print Manager, Ian Duddle, who spearheads the company's environmental strategy, added that the presses had to pass a rigorous environmental assessment."Our existing presses run alcohol free fount and so we expected, from day one, this to be the same for the new ones. We are pleased to report this was the case and we experienced no problems.
"As part of our commitment to environmental good practice and as part of the print floor investment we also installed a central ink pumping system which reduces waste and cuts down further the VOC emissions."
Both presses are equipped with manroland's ColorPilot system which is run in conjunction with ISO 12647-2 because colour management is vitally important to APS.
As Ian explains: "The nature of the majority of work means that we have to be able to provide total consistency of brand and image across the full range of marketing collateral. ColorPilot attends to automatic calibration and displays any deviations on the screen in less than 14 seconds."
APS has had the two presses fully prepped for the InlineSheeter option - manroland's press format make switching between sheeter and normal cut sheets a simple process.
Gary Doman, Director of Sales for Sheetfed and Finishing Equipment at Man Roland GB, said: This is a prestigious order for manroland. While the APS Group has been a valued customer of ours for many years there are no longer any guarantees in this business that clients will stay with an existing supplier.
"We would expect APS to look at the product offerings from all leading suppliers and we are, of course, delighted that manroland was selected as the supplier again.
"We are now playing our part in supporting APS's manufacturing division which is one of the most modern, productive and environmentally friendly press rooms in the UK."
