BOX 3 EVOLVE FROM DESIGN TO PRINT WITH HELP OF DC-445
31 Aug 2010

Design and print company Box 3 Creative Studio have enhanced their rapidly expanding print division with the introduction of a Duplo DC-445 creaser with integrated folder, purchased from The Finishing Point.

The Midlands-based company, established in 2005, have seen their business grow from a predominately design business into a fully fledged design and print outfit as Shaun Goddard, partner explains;

"We began as a design company as that is the collective core skill and passion of the three partners of Box 3. However, we have come from a print background so we all understand print and what it takes to run a print business. It was not long until we realised that we should strongly consider offering print as part of our services to give a 'complete solution' to our customers."

In 2006 they invested in a Xerox DocuColor 250 to enable them to cater for the shorter run jobs from clients, where it was deemed too expensive and time consuming to send out to commercial print. Then, with run lengths falling and quicker turnaround times in higher demand, Box 3 decided to bolster their print service.

"We started with the Xerox but we soon found that the finishing area was where we were bottlenecking. We only had hand finishing to start with but our 'complete solution service' gave us a lot of referral work which put pressure on our processes. It was clear we needed to consider an all in one finishing solution that ticked lots of boxes".

Goddard continues, "We liked The Finishing Point as they had been extremely proactive with the service support for our IDEAL guillotine, and they really understood our issues on the finishing side and offered us a great solution. We then invested in the DC-445 which immediately freed up the bottleneck of hand creasing, and enabled us to cut, crease and perforate in one pass. It made a very big difference, very quickly."

"However, we were still having to hand fold."

Within Box 3's first five years they have employed a strategy of calculated but aggressive growth with their plant list, that has enabled them to grow year on year; most recently 10% from 2009 to 2010. Having recognised the need for automatic folding, the plan was to first consolidate the new creaser, gain more business, then invest in a folder to become more efficient in the future.

"It wasn't our intention to re-invest in the print room until 2011. However we went to IPEX and we were really impressed by the ease of use, flexibility and speed of the Integrated Folder that went inline to the DC-445. We could see a direct benefit with making this purchase to our customers receiving an improved service, so we brought our investments plans forward and we haven't looked back since." comments Shaun.

Duplo's recently launched Integrated Folding System allows printers to fully finish different applications such as greeting cards, CD covers, folded 'tent' business cards, brochures, leaflets and many more without additional operators. The knife folder incorporates two knife folds making it ideal for parallel fold applications such as letter and gate folds. With a speed of up to 50 sheets per minute, the new folder matches the capabilities of Duplo's DC-445 and can also be by passed for no fold applications. The DC-445 can cater up to 350gsm, up to 15 creases on one sheet and features optional perforation and slitter modules.

Box 3 have found that on a particular 4pp A4 job they could save up to two hours production time (including print and finishing), on a run of 1,000 copies. They have even begun taking back litho work from their trade printers, after the printing stage, then finishing in house which has enabled them to "gain back the control of our printing, and offer a smoother service to our client base".

www.box-3.co.uk



Contact: Peter Jolly
UK Marketing Manager

Telephone: +44(0) 1372 468 131
Direct: +44(0) 1372 478 279
Email: pjolly@duplointernational.com


Download: BOX 3 EVOLVE FROM DESIGN TO PRINT WITH HELP OF DC-445.pdf

Images: exterior.zip  

Back to Top