6 August 2015

Ruddocks makes £250k digital and finishing investment

A 250% growth in digital print work over four years has prompted a Lincoln company to buy four new machines.

Ruddocks Design and Print has invested £250,000 on new equipment including a Ricoh Pro C9100, which runs at 110ppm and cost the 120-year-old family business in Lincoln £150,000.

ther new kit includes a Matrix Duplex 530 DP costing £12,000, a Morgana AeroCut Quarto machine for around £10,000 and a reconditioned envelope inserting machine. The remaining cash went on redeveloping part of the factory to be an extended dedicated digital room, adding air conditioning and lighting, to make a clean, modern space for digital work.

Digital print manager Tristan Palser said: "We have grown digital volumes by 250% in four years, so we had to add to our existing kit line-up to keep up with the growth."

Ruddocks' 43 staff also run a Xerox Color 1000 and a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 and turn over nearly £3m, supplying booklets and brochures to hotels, estate agents and training providers.

Palser said he hoped the new investments would push turnover to £3.3m within a year or two, mostly consolidating work from existing clients but also taking on new customers.

"The Ricoh doubles our capacity, enables us to run 400gsm paper and means we can print on extended sheet sizes: six-page A4 work and A4 landscape booklets previously done on litho kit," he said.

Managing director Paul Banton said quality was of the "utmost importance" and the company needed to ensure its equipment helped improve service.

Ruddocks of Lincoln was established in 1872, though the company had been running since 1820. In the 1880s the family started the business that prints to this day as Ruddocks Design and Print