Suffolk based design, print and web service provider Indigo Ross have purchased and installed a new Duplo DBM-350 digital booklet maker to bring work in-house and to decrease turn around times to their existing customers.
Phil Roper, Managing Director of Indigo Ross said, “Investing in the Duplo booklet maker has really opened my eyes to automation. We should have done this much sooner!” Installed in March the DBM-350 digital booklet maker allows Indigo Ross to automate the production of their short, medium and long run booklet production, removing the need to farm out longer runs, allowing them to keep control of time frames and customer deadlines as well as increasing profits. Also purchased at the same time was a Matrix laminator with Omni Feeder.
Phil continues, “The DBM-350 is so user intuitive, our operators know the end products really well, but automating the process was a game changer. Merging the knowledge was simple, and the touch screen PC interface was straightforward and easy to get a handle on. It gives us so much more confidence to take in much more and demanding work that we would normally send out and in turn increase costs to the customer. The automation in make-readies, job set up and change over and the speed are obvious stand out features. My operators are happy, the automation allows them to drink more coffee! But joking aside, it’s enabled us to employ more staff because we are bringing in so much more work in-house. The challenge we currently have is in recruitment.”
The digital print house celebrates 28 years this April and moved into their current 3000 sqm premises in 2010. Providing a one stop shop for graphic design, web development and SEO, commercial and large format print along with signage, Indigo Ross has become a consultancy based business. “We’ve managed to find the sweet spot, where we can maintain our customer's brand integrity, making smaller businesses look much more corporate and professional, from internal office branding and signage to their websites and all their stationary and promotional items. We’ve really become the marketing team for many of our customers. This is the reason why customer retention and our reputation is so important to us.
Craig Harry, Regional Sales Manager for Duplo UK said, “I’ve known Phil and Indigo Ross for quite a while from my last role, developing their business has been one of my goals. I thought that the DBM-350 was a perfect fit for their style and their operators. It’s a really cost effective machine and hits the perfect place between Phil's run lengths and the myriad of different jobs they run. The feeder they have with the system is our most popular digital feeder. The two paper feed trays in the DSF-2200 allow the combination of main content pages with covers that have been offset printed, printed on a separate digital press, UV coated or laminated – avoiding the usual reduction in speed due to the different stocks. Phil continues, “Duplo provided installation and training which was comprehensive and has allowed my operators to get to grips with the machine extremely quickly. ”
“Covid was very tough to get through for us, and we lost approx. 2/3 of our turnover and had to reduce our staffing. However, with the help of the New Anglia Growth Hub, we purchased both these new devices and it’s really managed to help us develop and recover really quickly – we are now back to pre-Covid levels of production. The process was quite simple as long as we were transparent. Sam was also brought in to market our company to find new business, and since she joined, marketing and SEO has really increased the profile of our company. We use our own in-house team, and we practice what we preach now. Our customers range from large multinationals to small single person businesses, through a wide range of industries across many vertical markets. But our approach to all of them is exactly the same – how do we get to help them achieve their goals – and it’s worked so far. We help our customers stand out and help them grow, that is our sweet spot!”
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