Apprintable, a London-based design and print specialist, has moved to larger premises in order to expand its business and continue its investment drive. It also has increased its staff.
The original location of the business was an 84sqm space in Wembley Park. Since September, the company has more than tripled its space. It moved to a new 279sqm site in a more industrial area of Wembley.
Apprintable managing director Peter Haddad told Printweek: “We couldn’t fit any more equipment into the old place, we were pretty stacked over there and wanted new equipment and more space to grow.
“The new site is incredible, everything works so much better when you’ve got space to actually operate. In fact – for now – we’ve even got too much space and we’re moving machines closer to each other.
“Before it was very much if we wanted to add something we had to figure out what we could shift around and squash together just to make it fit. But now we’ve got the room to do it, it’s about improving space, optimising our workflow, and making sure that we get jobs in and out very quickly.”
To replace the Ricoh Pro C5300s, which was retained as a backup, the company also purchased a Xerox Versant 280 280 digital press and a VeloBlade 64+ digital cutter from Vivid Laminating Technologies.
Haddad explained that the Versant 280 was purchased in August and provided by ASL. He also stated that the VeloBlade64+ was installed two days later after the business moved to its new site. This was a replacement die-cutter Graphtec F-Mark Plus, and the VeloBlade 64+ has been used for detailing work.
The VeloBlade 64+ has enhanced speed for the company, with “productivity three or four times greater”. The device comes with a tape applicator that allows the company to finish its products by machine, such as coffee cup sleeves and hotel keycard wallets.
The latest investments and site move cost the business just over £80,000 in total.
The business purchased a Morgana laminator Pro 450 Pro earlier this year to expand its laminating capabilities and bring it in-house. The business also has an Aerocut Prime from Morgana that arrived about a year ago and a Canny P50 automated strapping machine.
The eight-staff company, which was established in 2015, mainly serves the hospitality and drinks sectors, and is looking at turnover of around £750,000 for this financial year, also runs an Epson SureColor SC-F2100 direct-to-garment printer with a heat press and pre-treatment machine, purchased at the start of 2021.
A Vivid Laminating Technologies also recently invested in an Easycoat gluing system, an Oki Pro A3white toner printer from Amaya UK, as well as a Sawgrass SG1000 A3 printing machine that was provided by The Magic Touch.
Finally, the company has just taken on Ankita Saxena as its new full-time product manager, to boost its e-commerce activity “far beyond where it is now”.
“We want to speed up quoting and estimating, and for Ankita to focus on developing our website,” Haddad said.
In January, two more employees are expected to join the company. The business plans to add a production apprentice to its team and a market co-ordinator.