The post-press kit manufacturer and reseller posted sales of £9.4m from June 2012 to May 2013, signalling a 5% increase year-on-year.
“Market conditions are still tough, but we’ve got such a talented and passionate team here and they’ve worked tirelessly this year – having a great product range also helps,” said Peter Jolly, who was promoted to UK managing director last September.
The numbers are currently being audited, so Jolly declined to reveal contribution figures but he said that profit growth was looking to be in line with or slightly ahead of sales growth.
“We are profitable and at the minute it looks like this year we will have recorded a five-year revenue and net profit high for the UK. So we’re looking like we’ll be back to where we were before the downturn,” he said.
According to Jolly, the breadth of the company’s customer base; from office users and small implants, largely supplied by its established dealer reseller network, up to large inplants and commercial digital and litho operations were key to its growth.
“We’ve got a nice spot in the market and we’re becoming increasingly relevant to larger printers too, we’re gaining significant traction with some of the top 50 companies from the PrintWeek Top 500 for example,” he added.
The company is looking to develop its customer base further and as part of this strategy its set to make its Fespa debut later this month. The company is in the process of finalising its appearance at the wide-format show, where it is set to demonstrate one of its DC family of digital cutter/creasers.
“A lot of our customers are heading towards the packaging market and that drove us to look at taking a stand at Fespa,” said Duplo international commercial manager Samantha Mee.
Following the strong figures for 2012/2013 Jolly said the company was targeting sales of £10m in its new financial. To support this growth it was looking to increase headcount at the 65 staff operation by boosting its sales and marketing operation with five new appointments in the coming months. The company currently has no plans to bolster its headcount of 30 technical staff in the UK.
“In the downturn we held on to our service staff because we realised that they were critical to our reputation, but the sales side was slightly whittled down. We’re now going to put our foot firmly back on the gas though,” said Jolly.
The company is hosting an open house event on the 18-20 June at its Addlestone, Surrey headquarters – for more information on the Print Finishing First event, click here.