The source for this optimism are two flexo label presses from Mark Andy that have transformed County’s business.
Originally dedicated to foil stamping, County added a three-color 7" flexo press in 1994 to help bring in-house some ÂŁ100ęŻ worth of flexo business it had outsourced. A second flexo press, this time a 10", six-color machine, was added in ’98. In January ’03, another Mark Andy 2200 10" flexo press was added, this time with four water-based and four UV stations, plus a turning station, laminating unit, and leaflet device.
Much faster than its six-color stablemate, the new press is already operating on two shifts and might add a third shift at any point. "By increasing our staff to 26 and running both Mark Andy presses on triple shift, I calculate we can attain a £3.2-million turnover from these premises," Richardson predicts. "After that, we’ll need to move to something bigger that offers a better workflow pattern for production." (In the photo, Richardson stands alongside one of the workhorse p-s label flexo presses.)
Part of this rapid growth is due to development of a mail-order service on the Internet for a vast range of stock p-s labels, in addition to the company Web site.