The group’s parent company has also just filed a strong set of results for 2023, with sales up 4.8% to £71.9m and an improvement in gross margins despite a challenging trading environment.
Pureprint’s operations in Uckfield and its Imprint large-format site in Newcastle have been reconfigured as part of the investment round.
CEO Mark Handford said the solid foundations of its print business had helped the group to grow its added-value services, which include its software system as well as marketing and creative solutions.
“The growth in added-value products has been pretty phenomenal. We have our own proprietary software IP that we white label for people, and the video and photography studio has quadrupled in size,” he explained.
Other growth areas include out-of-home (OOH) at Imprint – a brand new market for the company.
“It’s gone from zero to a multimillion pound business in 12 months,” Handford added.
Transactional mail is also on the up, as are personalised gifting products. Luxury packaging has grown following last year’s acquisition of Screaming Colour’s box division.
“Luxury packaging has gone from strength-to-strength and we’ve onboarded quite a lot of new clients in the personalised gifting space for the busy peak period,” he noted.
The fresh investments include press and post-press equipment, with Pureprint in the process of commissioning a new eight-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 with coater at Uckfield. It replaces an older four-colour Speedmaster.
The new XL 106 can operate in perfecting or straight printing mode.
“It’s a very versatile press, we can perfect four-back-four, but we also have a lot of clients that will use six, seven or eight colours and a coat. So for a lot of very top end work it can be used in straight mode,” Handford said.
“And obviously having the coating unit was also very important for us.”
A raft of new post-press kit has also been installed, including a high-speed Stahlfolder TH-82-P with shingle feed, also from Heidelberg, speeding the delivery of folded sections to the bindery.
Intelligent Finishing Systems has supplied an array of Horizon kit to boost the group’s casebound book and layflat capabilities.
The new equipment includes a Horizon Case Binding Preparation System, a BQ-500 perfect binder, and HT-1000V zero makeready variable trimmer.
Also new is a Layflat CI-550 fully automatic casing in machine.
The group has invested in “multiple machines” at its luxury packaging operation, which spans high volume packaging in Crayford and at Uckfield for products such as influencer boxes and slipcases.
Imprint installed its first Durst large-format digital device earlier this year, with the installation of a P5 350 HSR D4 3.5m-wide LED printer.
The group is approaching its centenary, having been originally established in 1926.
It employed 412 people at the year-end.
