Pureprint said it planned to invest in large format using the injection of a £5.3 million investment from the Business Growth Fund. That has turned out to be the acquisition of a majority stake in Newcastle inkjet and screen printer Imprint, operating three Inca Onset presses in new premises north of the city and screen machines in a second plant.
Pureprint can now satisfy customer requirements for point of sale and in store promotion along with litho and digital print for customers wanting integrated campaigns or to deal with a single supplier. “It’s an area we have wanted to get into for some time,” says business development director Richard Owers. “This is a better solution than buying equipment and learning how to use it. The deal will also allow Imprint to increase the breadth of their offering to their customer base.”
Imprint already offers some smaller format work though an iGen4 which is used for variable data printing. “Our business now is not just about POS and large format as most of our clients have other production requirements as well,” says Dave Bullivant, joint managing director of Imprint. “We are ideally placed to offer them the full range of marketing collateral and this has been driving our growth in recent years. Now with the extensive range of production facilities that Pureprint have we will be able to enhance our offering even more.”
The deal pushes Pureprint’s running sales to more than £50 million a year and its headcount to 375 thanks to Imprint’s £10 million turnover and 100 employees.
Imprint has a strong IT base, used internally to display job progress and schedules on flat panel screens in the factory and keep clients informed of progress. It has also been a strong advocate of printing to match ISO 12647 quality standards backed by ISO 9001 and ISO 14001.
This has enabled the two companies to work together on projects in the past, through Pureprint’s print management arm. These contacts extend back a number of years, says Owers.
With the emphasis on quality and this track record, there should be a good cultural fit between the two companies he said. “The companies have known each other for quite a while.”
Pureprint CEO Mark Handford adds: “We have worked with Imprint on a number of key projects over recent years and they are a first class company who we have much in common with. We have different strengths which when combined will give our customers more services, more innovation and more value.
“As well as their high production standards I have been very impressed with Imprint’s IT innovations and their collaboration with the University of Sunderland through the Knowledge Transfer Partnership, a programme designed to provide businesses with access to university expertise. Pureprint is always looking for innovation and new ideas and Imprint have a good track record with this.”
When Imprint moved into its current premises in 2010 it installed three Inca Onset S20 presses. Two of these have been replaced, one with the faster S50i model, the other with the higher quality R40i machine. These presses were installed in the latter part of 2014.
Imprint installed three Inca Onset S20 printers when it moved to the new factory in Newcastle in 2010. It has now replaced two of these with new S50 and a R40 machines. All are profiled to ISO standards and maintained to print to this level of quality.
