Last month saw Jimmy Ambler and James Roberts attend training courses at Duplo headquarters in Addlestone. They are now both proficient at maintaining and repairing Duplo Booklet Makers for The Finishing Point (TFP).
Based near Warrington TFP distribute, install and maintain a range of finishing equipment nationwide, predominantly Duplo equipment, but they also maintain and install systems from other manufacturers such as Renz, Muller Martini, MBO, Horizon and others. With a collective experience of sales and service in the print finishing sector spanning well over 60 years TFP is well placed to offer advice and aftersales support to customers looking to set-up or expand their print finishing services.
L-R Jimmy Ambler, Apprentice Service Engineer, James Roberts, Service Engineer, Alan Brownley, Duplo Region Sales Manager – Northern territories
Key to their excellent service record is their team of fully factory and manufacturer trained Service Engineers. James Robertson, Director at TFP said, “We have recently expanded our service team and now have 5 service engineers on the road. We have a dedicated service co-ordinator and a dedicated consumables desk so our customers can be sure of speaking to someone who can provide them with the advice they need and get an engineer scheduled to assist them quickly and efficiently. Our Service team are the backbone of the company.”
The latest edition to the team is 17 year old Jimmy Ambler. He is TFP’s latest apprentice; in collaboration with Leeds City College and TFP, Jimmy has spent much of the last 10 months at Bluetree Group servicing their finishing lines and has just completed his Duplo booklet maker training. When asked about his experience so far, Jimmy said “It’s interesting, and I just love the fault-finding side of servicing and repairing these machines. I spend about 2 days a week at Bluetree and the rest shadowing TFP’s other engineers. I’m good with Horizon equipment and 3 knife trimmers, the problem-solving aspect of the job is what drew me initially. It’s always different, the customers are great, their operators are helpful and I’m just glad I’m out and about every day doing something different. I prefer going out on the national accounts – the further out the better I say!” Jimmy is in the Rugby Academy and plays professionally – he plans to continue with his Service Engineering career and wants to get fully qualified. He has 4 years left on his course.
Joining Jimmy on the training was James Roberts a veteran Service Engineer who is helping Jimmy with his career path. “Jimmy is great, I think apprenticeship programmes are really important, it’s about nurturing the next generation and getting them to understand that how important the industry is to the country. He’s right, the fault-finding and problem-solving aspect of the job is why we do what we do. It’s the satisfaction of fixing an expensive machine so that it does what it was designed to do”.
James Robertson Director at TFP expands on the companies apprenticeship programme, “Employing an apprentice has been a very positive experience for us. James has been an asset to the engineering team across a broad range of jobs. He has assisted with service on multiple booklet makers, collators and guillotines and has assisted with machine moves and new installations. He is welcomed by our customers who appreciate the need to train the next generation of engineers and we are grateful to many suppliers but particularly Duplo UK who have welcomed him on to training programmes. We would certainly recommend the apprenticeship scheme and would consider employing another apprentice in the future.”
Victoria Robertson, Director at TFP spoke about the continued partnership between TFP and Duplo. “Having worked with Duplo for more than 16 years I have always found the team in Addlestone to be highly supportive and very efficient. We value the relationship we have with the Duplo team and look forward to strengthening our partnership with them, through sales and working together to a greater degree in the future. Over the many years that we have sold Duplo and IDEAL equipment we have found the products to be of an excellent standard and the training and support offered to our engineering team has been outstanding”. We look forward to many more years of working in partnership with Duplo UK.
L-R Jimmy Ambler, Apprentice Service Engineer, James Roberts, Service Engineer, Alan Brownley, Duplo Region Sales Manager – Northern territories
Main Image: L-R is Alan Brownley, Duplo Region Sales Manager – Northern territories, Tom Mist, Duplo Technical Product Specialist, James Roberts, Service Engineer, Jimmy Ambler, Apprentice Service Engineer.
