PQQs to be abolished after gov’t backs report recommendations
Growing Your Business, published by the Prime Minister’s enterprise advisor Lord Young, said that micro-businesses and SMEs should not be required to complete what can be lengthy and time-consuming Pre Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) for public sector contracts with a value of less than the €200,000 (£170,000) EU threshold. Additionally, the report called for public sector bodies to use a single standard PQQ to assess bids purely on technical skills and capacity, avoiding “gold plating with a plethora of different locally determined objectives”. The aim is to simplify the bidding process for SMEs by reducing the time and cost of tendering and improving their capacity for growth by giving them better access to contracts. Another recommendation that the government has now pledged to carry out is the lifting of the cap on the government-backed Start Up Loan scheme so that those over 30 years old can access finance to start a business. Launched in September 2012 and headed by entrepreneur James Caan, the initiative was initially only available to 18-24 year-olds. This was then extended in January to include those up to 30, but in line with Lord Young’s recommendation, the cap will be scrapped entirely. The government has also agreed to pilot a ‘growth vouchers’ scheme worth £30m over two years to encourage small firms to seek specialist guidance on development, such as workforce expansion and development, marketing, financial management and online growth. In his report, Lord Young said: “I believe that if we can use a voucher scheme that encourages small firms to seek external help, we can make a real impact on their performance.” Other changes pledged by government include the implementation of a Supporting Small Business Charter to incentivise business schools to help micro-businesses and SMEs grow, and better marketing of the many SME-targeted public sector schemes. The government’s backing for Lord Young’s recommendations was announced by David Cameron at an event, held at 10 Downing Street yesterday, celebrating SMEs’ contribution to the economy. Attending the event business and enterprise minister Michael Fallon said: “We all want faster growth. As Britain recovers, small firms are leading the generation of ideas, creating new jobs and driving enterprise. “Whether by encouraging more firms to export or opening up procurement opportunities, government is backing ambitious businesses by giving them the support they need to grow.”...
read moreSolopress installs third Xerox iGen4
The £250,000 install, which joins three Epson Stylus Pro 9700s and three Du Pont Largo 4406s, was made as part of the firm’s latest round of investments in quick turnaround output. It also included a £110,000 Autobond laminator spend and increasing its Live Chat sales team from one to five staff. The rationale behind adding another Xerox machine was to add extra capacity and insulate the company further from potential downtime, said co-founder Aron Priest. “With any digital machine you have a certain amount of downtime so to maintain uptime you have to install another machine,” he said. “And with three printers we can use one for board, one for paper and one for more bespoke jobs; the machines tend to like that,” added Priest. Another iGen was chosen because Priest and co-founder Andy Smith felt they were “well looked after” by Xerox. This vendor was originally chosen due to Solopress favouring its easy-to-use, green button technology. Further rapid expansion is in the pipeline for Solopress, Priest said. The company has taken on 40 extra staff since Christmas, and is looking to boost employee numbers from 140 to 155 by September. The company is aiming for a £12 million turnover this year. “At the end of this journey we aim to have six or seven iGens, if growth continues at this rate,” said Priest. “The digital market is really going from strength to strength.”...
read morePQQs to be abolished after gov’t backs report recommendations
Growing Your Business, published by the Prime Minister’s enterprise advisor Lord Young, said that micro-businesses and SMEs should not be required to complete what can be lengthy and time-consuming Pre Qualification Questionnaires (PQQs) for public sector contracts with a value of less than the €200,000 (£170,000) EU threshold. Additionally, the report called for public sector bodies to use a single standard PQQ to assess bids purely on technical skills and capacity, avoiding “gold plating with a plethora of different locally determined objectives”. The aim is to simplify the bidding process for SMEs by reducing the time and cost of tendering and improving their capacity for growth by giving them better access to contracts. Another recommendation that the government has now pledged to carry out is the lifting of the cap on the government-backed Start Up Loan scheme so that those over 30 years old can access finance to start a business. Launched in September 2012 and headed by entrepreneur James Caan, the initiative was initially only available to 18-24 year-olds. This was then extended in January to include those up to 30, but in line with Lord Young’s recommendation, the cap will be scrapped entirely. The government has also agreed to pilot a ‘growth vouchers’ scheme worth £30m over two years to encourage small firms to seek specialist guidance on development, such as workforce expansion and development, marketing, financial management and online growth. In his report, Lord Young said: “I believe that if we can use a voucher scheme that encourages small firms to seek external help, we can make a real impact on their performance.” Other changes pledged by government include the implementation of a Supporting Small Business Charter to incentivise business schools to help micro-businesses and SMEs grow, and better marketing of the many SME-targeted public sector schemes. The government’s backing for Lord Young’s recommendations was announced by David Cameron at an event, held at 10 Downing Street yesterday, celebrating SMEs’ contribution to the economy. Attending the event business and enterprise minister Michael Fallon said: “We all want faster growth. As Britain recovers, small firms are leading the generation of ideas, creating new jobs and driving enterprise. “Whether by encouraging more firms to export or opening up procurement opportunities, government is backing ambitious businesses by giving them the support they need to grow.”...
read moreSolopress installs third Xerox iGen4
The £250,000 install, which joins three Epson Stylus Pro 9700s and three Du Pont Largo 4406s, was made as part of the firm’s latest round of investments in quick turnaround output. It also included a £110,000 Autobond laminator spend and increasing its Live Chat sales team from one to five staff. The rationale behind adding another Xerox machine was to add extra capacity and insulate the company further from potential downtime, said co-founder Aron Priest. “With any digital machine you have a certain amount of downtime so to maintain uptime you have to install another machine,” he said. “And with three printers we can use one for board, one for paper and one for more bespoke jobs; the machines tend to like that,” added Priest. Another iGen was chosen because Priest and co-founder Andy Smith felt they were “well looked after” by Xerox. This vendor was originally chosen due to Solopress favouring its easy-to-use, green button technology. Further rapid expansion is in the pipeline for Solopress, Priest said. The company has taken on 40 extra staff since Christmas, and is looking to boost employee numbers from 140 to 155 by September. The company is aiming for a £12 million turnover this year. “At the end of this journey we aim to have six or seven iGens, if growth continues at this rate,” said Priest. “The digital market is really going from strength to strength.”...
read more1st Signs & Graphics targets growth with Arizona install
The Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales company serves the construction and property markets, with clients including Barratt Homes and Taylor Wimpey. It also provides a full board service to over 120 local estate agents, which the Arizona is predominantly being used to service. “We were looking for something that would improve the range of services we can offer. Previously we might have had to outsource some work, with the addition of the Arizona we can produce everything in house,” said managing director Terry Veale. Veale added that the company was initially only looking to secure funding for a 20% deposit from Finance Wales to complete a five-year lease on the Arizona, but the RDA offered to finance an outright purchase with a loan for a “six-figure sum”. “I wouldn’t exactly describe it as a pain free process, but when you take into consideration the amount of money, I would like to think that if you’re fully prepared with all the information then it’s a fairly straightforward process. It’s probably no worse than trying to get bank funding to be fair, and I don’t think I would have got a 100% loan from a bank either,” said Veale. He added the whole process took around 10 weeks. The Finance Wales funding came from the organisation’s £150m Wales JEREMIE fund, which aims to encourage investment amongst Welsh micro and small businesses. The Arizona 460XT features six ink channels, including white ink, and is capable of 21m/hr in production mode. It can handle rigid media up to 2,500×3,050mm and 50.8mm deep or rolls up to 2,190mm wide. The Arizona is 1st Signs & Graphics first flatbed machine and prior to its installation six weeks ago the company would print estate agent boards on vinyl and then laminate them to the required substrate, whereas now they can print directly on to the boards. Following the investment the £700,000 company is looking to recruit two more staff to its team of 17....
read more1st Signs & Graphics targets growth with Arizona install
The Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales company serves the construction and property markets, with clients including Barratt Homes and Taylor Wimpey. It also provides a full board service to over 120 local estate agents, which the Arizona is predominantly being used to service. “We were looking for something that would improve the range of services we can offer. Previously we might have had to outsource some work, with the addition of the Arizona we can produce everything in house,” said managing director Terry Veale. Veale added that the company was initially only looking to secure funding for a 20% deposit from Finance Wales to complete a five-year lease on the Arizona, but the RDA offered to finance an outright purchase with a loan for a “six-figure sum”. “I wouldn’t exactly describe it as a pain free process, but when you take into consideration the amount of money, I would like to think that if you’re fully prepared with all the information then it’s a fairly straightforward process. It’s probably no worse than trying to get bank funding to be fair, and I don’t think I would have got a 100% loan from a bank either,” said Veale. He added the whole process took around 10 weeks. The Finance Wales funding came from the organisation’s £150m Wales JEREMIE fund, which aims to encourage investment amongst Welsh micro and small businesses. The Arizona 460XT features six ink channels, including white ink, and is capable of 21m/hr in production mode. It can handle rigid media up to 2,500×3,050mm and 50.8mm deep or rolls up to 2,190mm wide. The Arizona is 1st Signs & Graphics first flatbed machine and prior to its installation six weeks ago the company would print estate agent boards on vinyl and then laminate them to the required substrate, whereas now they can print directly on to the boards. Following the investment the £700,000 company is looking to recruit two more staff to its team of 17....
read moreColourXpress targets growth after Ryobi spend
The 11-staff business installed a six-colour Ryobi 526GX in January, which was closely followed by a two-back-two Ryobi 524GXP in March, both from Apex Digital Graphics. The B3 presses replaced a 10-year old Ryobi 525HXX. ColourXpress managing director Mike Corran said one of the reasons behind the investment was to introduce one-pass spot colour and coat on four colour jobs, which combined with the higher level of automation had substantially increased the company’s productivity. “Not only does it print faster, it also makes ready faster and when you combine that with the ability to seal in one pass, in effect we’ve been able to double the output of the five-colour HXX with the six-colour GX,” said Curran. He added that the PDSE inline scanning spectrophotometer was another major bonus of the investment. “The two GXs have boosted the quality and consistency of our output, it was good before – its just better now,” Corran said. The £500,000 spend, which also included infrastructure improvements to the firm’s facility, was partly financed through “meaningful five-figure” funding from ColourXpress’s local RDA. The firm wasn’t initially planning to buy the perfecting 524GXP, but following it securing a three-year NHS tender at the start of the year, which went live last month, it installed the second Ryobi. The firm has taken on two additional staff following the installation of the second press and Corran said that he was planning to double staffing levels to around 20 by the end of the year. The firm had sales of around £750,000 last year and Corran said it’s on course to achieve £1.2m this year. “When you combine the productivity of the two new presses we’ve actually quadrupled our total capacity and we’ve already filled that. I’m not sure if we’ve just been extremely lucky, but we’ve won a lot of contractual work nationally and locally,” Corran added. The company secured its funding from Plymouth University and Western Morning News Growth Fund. Corran said he effectively took a month off from his “day job” to apply for the funding, which involved a full business plan, including forecasts and trading statements. “It was definitely worthwhile though, because without the RDA funding we would not have been able to invest in the second press,” said Corran. The company offers a full cross-media service, including website design, e-marketing, variable print via its Xerox engines, as well as a fully functioning B2C storefront under a different name. It also has a physical high street presence as well as separate production facility. “In these troubled times the printers that are left usually have decent machinery and staff, so you are competing with the best of the best and all you’re left with is price. We don’t want to do that, we focus on profit because it’s not a dirty word. So we’ve focussed on adding value and services,” said Corran....
read moreStanford Marsh launches dedicated 3D website
The Worcester-based business, which has five sites throughout the UK, supplies products including wide-format and 3D printers from a range of manufacturers such as Canon, Ricoh, Xerox and HP, as well as specialist 3D manufacturer Stratasys. Following the recent merger of Stratasys with competitor 3D firm Objet, the range of 3D products available through Stanford Marsh has considerably expanded prompting the distributor to launch the dedicated sector website, www.smg3d.co.uk. Director at Stanford Marsh Matthew Perkins said: “This 3D site is designed to provide current and potential users of 3D print technology with the definitive source of 3D information. “It is broken down into industry sectors, so businesses can easily search for the 3D solutions that are most relevant to the areas they work in. “As well as searching for information on the expansive range of 3D printers we have on offer, customers can also view the relevant associated media and software,” he added....
read moreColourXpress targets growth after Ryobi spend
The 11-staff business installed a six-colour Ryobi 526GX in January, which was closely followed by a two-back-two Ryobi 524GXP in March, both from Apex Digital Graphics. The B3 presses replaced a 10-year old Ryobi 525HXX. ColourXpress managing director Mike Corran said one of the reasons behind the investment was to introduce one-pass spot colour and coat on four colour jobs, which combined with the higher level of automation had substantially increased the company’s productivity. “Not only does it print faster, it also makes ready faster and when you combine that with the ability to seal in one pass, in effect we’ve been able to double the output of the five-colour HXX with the six-colour GX,” said Curran. He added that the PDSE inline scanning spectrophotometer was another major bonus of the investment. “The two GXs have boosted the quality and consistency of our output, it was good before – its just better now,” Corran said. The £500,000 spend, which also included infrastructure improvements to the firm’s facility, was partly financed through “meaningful five-figure” funding from ColourXpress’s local RDA. The firm wasn’t initially planning to buy the perfecting 524GXP, but following it securing a three-year NHS tender at the start of the year, which went live last month, it installed the second Ryobi. The firm has taken on two additional staff following the installation of the second press and Corran said that he was planning to double staffing levels to around 20 by the end of the year. The firm had sales of around £750,000 last year and Corran said it’s on course to achieve £1.2m this year. “When you combine the productivity of the two new presses we’ve actually quadrupled our total capacity and we’ve already filled that. I’m not sure if we’ve just been extremely lucky, but we’ve won a lot of contractual work nationally and locally,” Corran added. The company secured its funding from Plymouth University and Western Morning News Growth Fund. Corran said he effectively took a month off from his “day job” to apply for the funding, which involved a full business plan, including forecasts and trading statements. “It was definitely worthwhile though, because without the RDA funding we would not have been able to invest in the second press,” said Corran. The company offers a full cross-media service, including website design, e-marketing, variable print via its Xerox engines, as well as a fully functioning B2C storefront under a different name. It also has a physical high street presence as well as separate production facility. “In these troubled times the printers that are left usually have decent machinery and staff, so you are competing with the best of the best and all you’re left with is price. We don’t want to do that, we focus on profit because it’s not a dirty word. So we’ve focussed on adding value and services,” said Corran....
read moreStanford Marsh launches dedicated 3D website
The Worcester-based business, which has five sites throughout the UK, supplies products including wide-format and 3D printers from a range of manufacturers such as Canon, Ricoh, Xerox and HP, as well as specialist 3D manufacturer Stratasys. Following the recent merger of Stratasys with competitor 3D firm Objet, the range of 3D products available through Stanford Marsh has considerably expanded prompting the distributor to launch the dedicated sector website, www.smg3d.co.uk. Director at Stanford Marsh Matthew Perkins said: “This 3D site is designed to provide current and potential users of 3D print technology with the definitive source of 3D information. “It is broken down into industry sectors, so businesses can easily search for the 3D solutions that are most relevant to the areas they work in. “As well as searching for information on the expansive range of 3D printers we have on offer, customers can also view the relevant associated media and software,” he added....
read more