The new eight-colour B1 long perfector is due to be installed in July at the Leamington Spa base. The company has increased turnover by 125% to £5.6m in four years and almost doubled staff headcount to 65. Sales manager Paul Baxter said: “Predominantly we are a magazine printer and do long runs, but this new investment will give us the opportunity to look at other markets on the commercial side, maybe government work, education, high-end agency work. We might also look to work with print management companies.” Currently the firm operates two Speedmaster SM102-8-P presses and an SM74-4+L. One of the SM102s and the SM74 will be replaced to help give the company more productivity and flexibility. Managing director John Young said: “We can’t afford not to buy now. It will give us the ability to produce to the prices that the market demands today. It was the speed of makeready on the new SX 102 that was convincing. “Currently it is about 45 minutes on our SM 102s. But on the new press, it will be just 15 minutes. So as we average 420 eight-unit plate changes per month we will create over 200 hours capacity each month. “In addition we will use 100 sheets less per make-ready which equates to a saving of £30,000 in paper costs per year and the 80% improvement in running speed will give a significant benefit to productivity.” Finance for the press was arranged with Société Génerale through Bespoke Asset Finance. In total, including add-ons and internal preparations, the company spent about £2m. Young’s wife Gillian is company secretary while sons Alan and Paul work in prepress and customer services...

The new eight-colour B1 long perfector is due to be installed in July at the Leamington Spa base. The company has increased turnover by 125% to £5.6m in four years and almost doubled staff headcount to 65. Sales manager Paul Baxter said: “Predominantly we are a magazine printer and do long runs, but this new investment will give us the opportunity to look at other markets on the commercial side, maybe government work, education, high-end agency work. We might also look to work with print management companies.” Currently the firm operates two Speedmaster SM102-8-P presses and an SM74-4+L. One of the SM102s and the SM74 will be replaced to help give the company more productivity and flexibility. Managing director John Young said: “We can’t afford not to buy now. It will give us the ability to produce to the prices that the market demands today. It was the speed of makeready on the new SX 102 that was convincing. “Currently it is about 45 minutes on our SM 102s. But on the new press, it will be just 15 minutes. So as we average 420 eight-unit plate changes per month we will create over 200 hours capacity each month. “In addition we will use 100 sheets less per make-ready which equates to a saving of £30,000 in paper costs per year and the 80% improvement in running speed will give a significant benefit to productivity.” Finance for the press was arranged with Société Génerale through Bespoke Asset Finance. In total, including add-ons and internal preparations, the company spent about £2m. Young’s wife Gillian is company secretary while sons Alan and Paul work in prepress and customer services...

“We’ve made the investment because run lengths and speed of turnaround dictated that we had to have a mid-sized offset press,” said Alan Shannon, who runs the Cornwall company with his wife Caroline and son Sam. Sales director Sam Shannon said: “We wanted to be a bit more competitive in short-run work such as jackets, and will use an existing B1 Roland 700 perfector for longer-run stuff. So we decided to go with the smaller-format Komori.” The 37-staff company spent £2m on the 16,000soh machine, which is being installed this week, as well as changes to the facility in Saltash to house the kit. “We are impressed with Komori and feel as a medium-sized printer, the company is very supportive,” said Sam Shannon, whose print team makes £3m turnover from clients including Government groups and universities. Typical jobs include leaflets and council-tax booklets, and he said Deltor Communications was keen to strengthen what it did. New kit purchases aimed to make the business run “quicker rather than bigger”, he added. The Lithrone will run alcohol free, which ties in with the company’s environmental drive. Shannon said Deltor Communications was to reduce carbon emissions by installing a 20kW solar-panel electricity system on the roof of the depot. This will reduce electricity bills by 40% even with the new Komori running, he...

“We’ve made the investment because run lengths and speed of turnaround dictated that we had to have a mid-sized offset press,” said Alan Shannon, who runs the Cornwall company with his wife Caroline and son Sam. Sales director Sam Shannon said: “We wanted to be a bit more competitive in short-run work such as jackets, and will use an existing B1 Roland 700 perfector for longer-run stuff. So we decided to go with the smaller-format Komori.” The 37-staff company spent £2m on the 16,000soh machine, which is being installed this week, as well as changes to the facility in Saltash to house the kit. “We are impressed with Komori and feel as a medium-sized printer, the company is very supportive,” said Sam Shannon, whose print team makes £3m turnover from clients including Government groups and universities. Typical jobs include leaflets and council-tax booklets, and he said Deltor Communications was keen to strengthen what it did. New kit purchases aimed to make the business run “quicker rather than bigger”, he added. The Lithrone will run alcohol free, which ties in with the company’s environmental drive. Shannon said Deltor Communications was to reduce carbon emissions by installing a 20kW solar-panel electricity system on the roof of the depot. This will reduce electricity bills by 40% even with the new Komori running, he...

The group has acquired London and Leeds-based search engine optimisation and digital marketing agency Branded3 Search for an initial £10.7m, £8.6m in cash and 1.4m in newly issued shares. However, additional performance related payments over the next three years could result in a further £14.3m being paid. The 50-staff business operates in B2B and B2C markets with clients including Ann Summers, BMW, Heinz, HSBC, McDonald’s, Microsoft, More Than, Orange, Sky and Vue Cinemas. In the year ending 31 January 2013 it generated sales of £4.1m and a EBITDA of £1.7m before one-off items. This latest deal matches the £25m St Ives spent on digital marketing agency Amaze in March and follows similar deals for companies such as marketing research and insight agency Incite in 2012 and retailer and consumer consultancy Pragma Holdings in 2011. In line with previous acquisitions, the business will operate as a subsidiary of St Ives from its existing locations and the founders of Branded3, chief executive Vin Chinnaraja and director of search Patrick Altoft, will continue to lead the business. St Ives chief executive Patrick Martell said the deal would add “significant depth” to its marketing services offering. “Our combination of insight led innovation and trusted execution across digital and physical media creates a unique integrated offering in the market, which this acquisition complements well,” he said in a statement. Chinnaraja added: “We have achieved another major milestone in our growth plans and becoming part of a synergistic, forward-thinking group where there is huge potential for collaboration is a real boost for us. I am really looking forward to working with the St Ives team to fulfil our ambitious plans.” Speaking to PrintWeek, Martell said that there were no plans to merge the various recently acquired marketing services businesses or create a single group identity. “There are some overlaps, but we absolutely haven’t bought these businesses to put them together for synergy benefits. We bought them because of what they are and what they do, we’ll invest in them, we’ll run them separately, but encourage them to collaborate where there are opportunities,” said Martell. “With all of the businesses that we’ve acquired the brand is with the division, not with St Ives. They’re all their own brands, they all have their own brand strengths. We’re buying businesses that are either leaders in their markets, or have the potential to be. All have the ‘scale’ which is attractive to us.” According to Martell, the company has looked at more than140 businesses since it embarked on its strategy to grow its marketing services operation. He added that further acquisitions could be on the horizon. “We’ve said that we wanted to get non print to 40% of our...