The 4,500bph JDF-ready Horizon SPF-FC200A was bought to complement an ageing, seven-year-old SPF/FC-10. It has allowed the £4m turnover firm not only to double its capacity but also eliminate overtime. “It’s not given us anything we couldn’t do before,” reported joint managing director Glenn Whewell. “But it gives us more capacity. We were getting bottlenecks and it’s allowed us to just get more through.” He added: “We do a lot of booklet work, a lot of small format booklet work – 8 pages up to 40 pages varying from 50-10,000 copies. The machine is very flexible. We run a lot of instruction manuals for the gaming industry, advertising brochures for theatres and cinemas and general company brochures.” Key to the machine handling short-runs, is its quick makeready times, said Whewell: “The makeready is very quick, it’s just a series of keypad instructions and very straightforward and simple.” The new machine cost B&D around £40,000 from Intelligent Finishing Systems. The Horizon SPF-FC200A features 200-programme job memory storage, an icon-based touchscreen, Horizon’s patented suction rotor drum feeding system and mis-feed, double feed and jamming sensors. B&D didn’t look at any other brands when shopping for the new booklet making line, said Whewell. He added: “We were very familiar with this and were just aware it was the product we wanted. We didn’t feel the need to look elsewhere. It was just a case of tried and tested.” B&D Print Services was established in 1976 and also runs two five-colour B2 presses, a two-colour B2 and a five-colour B3 – all Heidelberg. It also has a Xerox Nuvera, Kodak NexPress, two Polar Guillotines and a Heidelberg Stitchmaster....

The core business of Guardian Media Group, which prints The Guardian, The Observer and Guardian Weekly newspapers, employs 108 members of staff across its Manchester and London Guardian Print Centres (GPCs). A GNM spokeswoman confirmed to PrintWeek that the organisation was in consultation but that no comment could be made on the number of jobs at risk while conversations were ongoing. She said: “It is anticipated that the proposed changes will result in a number of redundancies across GPC London and GPC Manchester, though the company will seek to achieve as many of the redundancies as possible through voluntary means. “We recognise that this is very unwelcome and unsettling news, and deeply regret that redundancies are necessary. GNM will do its best to support staff during this difficult process and will work closely with Unite throughout the consultation period.” In 2011, GNM announced a five-year transformation plan to adopt a ‘digital-first’ strategy, resulting in greater resources and investment dedicated to digital output over print, although the organisation said at the time that print would still be its biggest source of income by 2016. Last year, GNM recorded a £44.2m operating loss for the 12 months to 31 March 2012, largely as a result of declining print circulations and advertising sales and heavy investment in its digital activity. As a result, and as part of the ongoing ‘digital-first’ restructure, the organisation announced that it would cut 100 editorial jobs across its titles by March 2013. This year, operating results at GNM improved as a result of ongoing cost savings, although the division still posted losses of £30.9m for the 12 months to 31 March 2013....

The 4,500bph JDF-ready Horizon SPF-FC200A was bought to complement an ageing, seven-year-old SPF/FC-10. It has allowed the £4m turnover firm not only to double its capacity but also eliminate overtime. “It’s not given us anything we couldn’t do before,” reported joint managing director Glenn Whewell. “But it gives us more capacity. We were getting bottlenecks and it’s allowed us to just get more through.” He added: “We do a lot of booklet work, a lot of small format booklet work – 8 pages up to 40 pages varying from 50-10,000 copies. The machine is very flexible. We run a lot of instruction manuals for the gaming industry, advertising brochures for theatres and cinemas and general company brochures.” Key to the machine handling short-runs, is its quick makeready times, said Whewell: “The makeready is very quick, it’s just a series of keypad instructions and very straightforward and simple.” The new machine cost B&D around £40,000 from Intelligent Finishing Systems. The Horizon SPF-FC200A features 200-programme job memory storage, an icon-based touchscreen, Horizon’s patented suction rotor drum feeding system and mis-feed, double feed and jamming sensors. B&D didn’t look at any other brands when shopping for the new booklet making line, said Whewell. He added: “We were very familiar with this and were just aware it was the product we wanted. We didn’t feel the need to look elsewhere. It was just a case of tried and tested.” B&D Print Services was established in 1976 and also runs two five-colour B2 presses, a two-colour B2 and a five-colour B3 – all Heidelberg. It also has a Xerox Nuvera, Kodak NexPress, two Polar Guillotines and a Heidelberg Stitchmaster....

The core business of Guardian Media Group, which prints The Guardian, The Observer and Guardian Weekly newspapers, employs 108 members of staff across its Manchester and London Guardian Print Centres (GPCs). A GNM spokeswoman confirmed to PrintWeek that the organisation was in consultation but that no comment could be made on the number of jobs at risk while conversations were ongoing. She said: “It is anticipated that the proposed changes will result in a number of redundancies across GPC London and GPC Manchester, though the company will seek to achieve as many of the redundancies as possible through voluntary means. “We recognise that this is very unwelcome and unsettling news, and deeply regret that redundancies are necessary. GNM will do its best to support staff during this difficult process and will work closely with Unite throughout the consultation period.” In 2011, GNM announced a five-year transformation plan to adopt a ‘digital-first’ strategy, resulting in greater resources and investment dedicated to digital output over print, although the organisation said at the time that print would still be its biggest source of income by 2016. Last year, GNM recorded a £44.2m operating loss for the 12 months to 31 March 2012, largely as a result of declining print circulations and advertising sales and heavy investment in its digital activity. As a result, and as part of the ongoing ‘digital-first’ restructure, the organisation announced that it would cut 100 editorial jobs across its titles by March 2013. This year, operating results at GNM improved as a result of ongoing cost savings, although the division still posted losses of £30.9m for the 12 months to 31 March 2013....

The Drupa 2012-launched perfect binder has been installed at BGT’s Chessington print site and has replaced the not-for-profit organisation’s existing Kolbus KM470 Ratiobinder, which has been reassigned to one of its overseas sites. The Kingston-headquartered publishing house produces millions of booklets and gospel tracts as well as traditional bibles each year, partially for distribution in the UK, with around 60% exported. BGT invested in the new Kolbus after a demonstration proved it could produce a two-page perfect-bound ‘book’ on a single sheet of 152x99mm, 130gsm paper and four-page cover, at 9,000 copies an hour. The books were then trimmed with a Kolbus HD153P three-knife trimmer. According to BGT plant manager John Marsh the business was sold on the speed of the new Kolbus. He added: “We did trials using some of our existing products and were particularly impressed by the gatherer and trimmer of the Kolbus KM6000C, which had the edge over anything else we had seen for quality and speed. “Consistent high-speed operation was important with run lengths often in the tens of thousands in order to achieve an annual overall throughput of well over 3m perfect-bound publications.” BGT’s new Kolbus KM600C is linked to a polywrapping line with products addressed, sorted and boxed inline ahead of dispatch. Kolbus UK sales manager Greg Bird said: “The line is now installed and living up to expectations. We were delighted it was able to fulfil the speed and quality criteria of BGT.”...