Duplo UK is taking over as distributor for CP Bourg, rekindling a relationship that existed 20 or so years ago. Since then Bourg has been represented by TCS (now defunct), Engelmann and Buckham, TCM and latterly by Encore Machinery.
The return to Duplo UK follows on from similar agreements elsewhere. CP Bourg has a long standing relationship with Duplo’s distributor in Germany and since the start of this year has been represented by Duplo France in that country.
In the UK, the addition of the perfect binding equipment fills a gap for the business. CP Bourg has a range that covers inline or offline production of perfect bound books. This sit above the manual perfect binders that Duplo has been able to offer.
“This seems to be a natural development,” says Duplo UK managing director Martyn Train. “We have managed to pull this together quite quickly. It gives us a dramatically better perfect binding offer for the market. There is no crossover with anything we do already.”
The opportunity includes both offline and inline production with Canon, HP Indigo, Ricoh, Konica Minolta and Xerox. There is also booklet maker production line in Heidelberg’s Home of Print demonstration area in Germany. This can integrate with its Jetfire inkjet and Versafire toner presses.
Train expects interest in inline production to come from the corporate sector while commercial printers will prefer offline finishing. Book printers will also favour a fully automated inline production system. Examples of this kind of set up exist in Germany and close to the CP Bourg factory in Belgium.
This has been completely rebuilt to include a comprehensive showroom and training facility. Initially companies interested in Bourg technology will be invited to visit this facility.
Train explains: “CP Bourg’s technology complements our existing range perfectly. The build quality and engineering excellence align naturally with Duplo’s Japanese automaton and innovation ethos. I’m particularly excited to be taking customers to CP Bourg’s state of the art demonstration centre in Brussels in the coming months – it’s the perfect place to experience the power of these systems first-hand.”
In the longer term Duplo could install an example in its own Addlestone showroom, but there are no immediate plans for this. It will however be contacting Duplo customers that also have Bourg machinery. Service and support engineers will be trained on the equipment calling on experience from sister operations where necessary.
“We’ll be training our engineers over the next five or six weeks. At the same time head of service Paul Anderson will be getting out to see customers we have in common and any Bourg customers that contact us.”
