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A very big deal...
Multigraphics production facility
It is my belief that in the UK we often talk ourselves into recession, if we listen to the British press and the various reports on TV then it is probably time for us all to lock the doors and walk away, but as we all know we should probably give most of these reports the same amount of time we give to Page 3 of the tabloids, it was Kipling who said "If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs - you will be a man, my son!" (a much abridged version of his poem IF).
By considered continued investment, controlling costs and employing skilled staff many businesses can "buck the trend" of continued negative reporting, and by forging strong partnerships these companies can continue to "keep their heads" in an ever more competitive print industry.
Bucking the trend...
Two companies clearly not over reacting to the reports of gloom in the Screen Printing Industry are Multigraphics Ltd and Vision Supplies Ltd, two Yorkshire based companies who are very much going from strength to strength.
Founded in 1979, Multigraphics is recognised as the foremost UK supplier of large format print to their customer base of supermarkets, high street retailers, breweries, pub groups, restaurant chains etc. A substantial proportion of their customers are print management companies and other trade printers.
Multigraphics moved into its current 45,000 sq. ft. site just four years ago and employs 120 staff. The company has just taken over a new 25,000 sq. ft. unit to relocate the digital print department, it is close to their existing facility which houses three large format inline screen presses - two, four and five colour machines. More recently they have expanded their digital print facility further and now have eleven large format presses located at the new premises. This new site is dedicated solely to digital print, which leaves plenty of room for expansion on the screen printing site.
In 2003 Gary Lasham headed a 3i backed, buy in management buy out. Since then the business has expanded greatly, taking the turnover from £7m to a forecasted £11m, very impressive indeed!
Vision Supplies Ltd was established in 2001 by Paul Waterton, one of the former Managing Directors and Owners of Registerprint Machinery Ltd, the company is recognised for introducing unique and innovative consumable products to the printing industry, a highly customer focused business.
Vision and Chim92 (the Lyon based specialist manufacturer of chemicals and machinery) are the leaders in the supply of screen cleaning machinery and chemicals. They specialise in products which are free of oil based solvents and are the pioneers of automated Screen Cleaning Machinery which not only removes ink and stencil products but also anti-stains the mesh and dries it ready for re-entering the productionloop, something unheard of until recent years but introduced by Chim92 in 1999.
THINK is Vision's exclusive range of UV Screen Process inks which are manufactured to their own formula, the latest of which Type 02 was launched late in 2007. It is these revolutionary products which helped to develop this new long term relationship between both of these highly innovative companies.
Formulating Innovation...
Eddie Barnett, Multigraphics Commercial Manager, resolves many of the day to day production issues within the company, Eddie takes up the story "Like many companies screen cleaning has always been a difficult area for us, something that is multiplied several times by the big prints we produce and the size of the screen frames we use which are over 4m in length, handling these frames is difficult and we were using large quantities of a number of chemical types to complete the process. Although we had an existing screen cleaning machine, anti-staining has always been a problem with all frames being anti-stained by hand after exiting our machine". He continues "Without wanting to take too much of the moral high ground and being realistic in our industry, we want to ensure we are being as environmentally conscious as we can throughout all our processes, our new investment allows us to do this by reducing the volume of chemicals we were using, and reducing the tonnage of VOC's being discharged, while making sure that the water discharged from the department reduces both in volume and in COD content. We looked at several machines in great detail and had a number of demonstrations and site visits with other suppliers and manufactures, but in my opinion the only combination that truly exceeded our expectations was offered by Vision in the form of the Chim92 equipment and chemicals", a process described by Vision as "chemical containment".
Multigraphics new Chim92 machine is due to arrive in a few months time and more will be written in these pages about this very latest offering from Chim92, a new design which will push the boundaries of screen cleaning machines further than ever before, claim the company.
Eddie has always kept an open mind and a fluid approach to his Production Management and while discussing the various screen cleaning options with Vision's Managing Director Paul Waterton the subject quickly changed to some of Vision's other products, Paul presented THINK-02 a unique formula of UV Screen Process Ink. Designed to adhere to virtually all the commonly used point of sale substrates from paper & board products through PVC, styrene and polypropylene materials, THINK-02 is free of the relatively high levels of oil based solvents used by many manufacturers, and does not contain water, HDDA or NVP.
Waterton takes up the story "It has been a real pleasure to work with a company like Multigraphics who are very open minded when considering new products we were delighted to receive the order for the Chim92 machinery but equally excited to present our ink products to them which we believe are truly second to none in our industry"
Following the presentation Multigraphics agreed to enter into a prolonged period of ink testing using THINK-02 on a wide range of large format point of sale jobs which included many of the more difficult substrates used within screen printing, "We were looking for a true multi-purpose ink and were also testing many of the other inks available from the more traditional suppliers none of which came close to the performance of THINK-02" said Eddie.
Multigraphics loyalty to it's existing suppliers is not in question and every opportunity was given to them to deliver new ink products which would offer as many production benefits to the company as the new products from Vision, Eddie continues "After extensive testing over 6 weeks or so we ultimately decided that Type-02 offered us the best adhesion qualities over the widest substrate range, it's cost in use was lower
than the alternatives available which was further compounded by it's quite frankly amazing mileage. With the added benefit of not using many of the traditional chemicals like HDDA we felt that we were again reducing our overall environmental impact, not purely by the formulation of the ink when compared to many we had tried before, but by using less of the product, less of the packaging and associated transport, all of which must have a positive effect in my opinion.
Our company will always take an environmentally responsible approach to our production techniques".
Consolidating the Relationship...
Once Eddie had completed testing his recommendations were forwarded to the Board of Directors and it was down to Martin Hargreaves, the Finance Director, to resolve an agreement with Vision for them to become one of the largest consumable suppliers to the company, both parties negotiated what is believed to be one of the largest consumable supply agreements signed in the screen printing industry for many years, the details of the agreement are confidential to the parties but it will see both companies working extremely closely for a number of years, Martin continues “It is essential to continue developing our business in all areas, we continue to make very significant investments in the screen printing side of our business and on the digital print side. We have clearly been very impressed with Vision Supplies, their approach has been refreshing, dynamic and through extensive testing their products have proved to be class leading, we are delighted to welcome a very dynamic partner to our supply chain.”
Waterton concludes “I am very proud that the relationship with Multigraphics has developed to a new level, with the signing of our agreement. I am also very flattered that many of our clients are happy to enter into long term commitments which helps us all develop our businesses, working so closely with companies like Multigraphics gives invaluable feedback on our products and our clients requirements. We have always believed that the customer is King, but one of my own personal beliefs is that - The Devil is in the detail, a belief that we continue to develop within our business”.
’08 will see Vision launch some radical new products and continue to work to develop its business strategy with well established forward thinking companies like Multigraphics”.
