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A Strong Alliance
On January 15th Vision Supplies Ltd acquired a substantial shareholding of Registerprint Machinery Ltd, this acquisition of shares has seen the leading supplier of screen printing and ancillary machinery relocate from its Kent base to the newly expanded Vision site in Leeds. A bold move by Vision in difficult market times but one that Managing Director, Paul Waterton thinks is well timed.
"Vision has continued to increase its market share of consumable supplies year on year since its formation around 7 years ago. In this financial year the company will see its largest growth to date increasing turnover by more than 30%. We have created this growth by continuing to develop our business relationships with some of the strongest companies in our industry," says Waterton.
The company has worked hard to develop unique products not available from traditional supply chains and believes that many of its products are best in class. Registerprint is also synonymous with this business model being one of the most successful suppliers of print machinery in the screen printing sector for more than 40 years. Although the demise of new Svecia equipment had an effect on the business its maintenance and support services have been in strong demand and through difficult market conditions it has maintained strong sales of reconditioned machinery both in the UK and across Europe. Waterton continues, "the acquisition of shares in Registerprint was a logical step for both companies, until 5 years ago I was joint owner of the business before selling my shareholding to concentrate on the development of Vision. Throughout that time our company has continued to work closely with Registerprint who have been responsible for the installation and maintenance of all of the Chim 92 machinery, print machines and ancillary products sold by us. We have had great success in supplying machines and Registerprint has been a key supporter of our business, we have always remained on very friendly terms so the acquisition and relocation made sense to all parties involved creating a much stronger company both from a financial and management sense."
Structured Thinking
Colin Hale, Operations Director of Vision takes up the story, "our focus at Vision is very much on the customer, we work extremely hard to ensure that our products are of the highest standard and our service and support in the field are second to none, which is why I believe we have been attracting so many new clients to our business. It is my belief that our screen inks and cleaning products are simply the best products in their sector available today and the growth of our sales reflects this. Registerprint fits perfectly within this kind of thinking being in my opinion the most professional of service support suppliers in our industry and by becoming a Vision company we can build on their strengths.
Re-locating the business to Leeds has taken a considerable amount of time and effort with over 40,000 individual spare parts being relocated. The relocation has allowed us to create a new database of spares, every major component has been photographed before being allocated to a new stock control system, going forward this will allow us to use not only the new control system to help our customers identify parts but we also have the ability to forward pictures for confirmation or indeed use a web based stock control system to allow our clients to identify parts for themselves. This becomes particularly useful for older machines that many companies choose not to support."
The relocation of operations required an additional 3,500sq ft of space to be made available, not only for the spares stocks but for used equipment that both companies have been acquiring including multi-colour print lines, imaging machines and pre-press equipment."
Continued Investment
James Turley is the Financial Director of Registerprint, "Vision's acquisition of shares in our company is something I and my fellow Directors warmly welcomed, it will allow us to scale up our operations in the UK and offer additional goods and services over the forthcoming months. We welcome the addition of experienced sales staff along with strong management structures which will allow us to continue to improve upon the services we offer, and relocating the business to Leeds also allowed us to reduce our overhead. This move has been something all our staff have been supportive of, we have already employed a new addition to the team."
Gary Tolchard, Technical Director continues, "our relationship with our suppliers remains strong and our relationship with Svecia is legendary in our industry, we are actively looking to develop other services and form new business relationships with suppliers to ensure we remain at the forefront of our industry. This takes time as we have always been associated with many of the leading machinery manufacturers and we do not want to dilute our brand image or services by selecting the wrong partners. Print is changing and we acknowledge that fact, with Vision's support we will continue to develop our business for many years to come, many of our customers can now have direct access to the products supplied by Vision and vice versa this alliance has been very well received, jointly we are in a very strong and unique position."
A Growing List
Although the companies remain independently Limited their operations will be jointly developed. The list of services offered from Registerprint includes the service and support of all screen printing machinery and ancillary products, this support ranges from breakdown services to regular service maintenance and comprehensive extended warranty and service packages. Although predominantly UK based the engineering team regularly travels to Europe. Registerprint continues to offer a wide range of new equipment as well as fully reconditioned machines.
Vision's range of consumable products includes the unique Chim 92 range of chemicals, their own Think ink range and the supply of Chim 92's revolutionary screen cleaning machinery, 3 of which have been installed over the last 6 months. Vision's customers extend to Melbourne, Australia where the company has installed 3 new screen cleaning machines at the largest printers in the Victoria region.
Waterton concludes, "with our customers continued support and by selecting the right business partners we will develop both businesses to suit these changing times and by acknowledging these changes we can remain fluid in our objectives."
For further information on the services provided by both companies please contact:-
Tel: 0113 2008270
Fax: 0113 2777282
E-mail custserv@visionsupplies.co.uk
Unit 5
Lockwood Close Industrial Estate
Lockwood Close
Leeds
LS11 5UU
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