Apprintable moves for larger premises, investments, and hirings

The original location of the business was an 84sqm space in Wembley Park. Since September, the company has more than tripled its space. It moved to a new 279sqm site in a more industrial area of Wembley.

Apprintable managing director Peter Haddad told Printweek: “We couldn’t fit any more equipment into the old place, we were pretty stacked over there and wanted new equipment and more space to grow.

“The new site is incredible, everything works so much better when you’ve got space to actually operate. In fact – for now – we’ve even got too much space and we’re moving machines closer to each other.

“Before it was very much if we wanted to add something we had to figure out what we could shift around and squash together just to make it fit. But now we’ve got the room to do it, it’s about improving space, optimising our workflow, and making sure that we get jobs in and out very quickly.”

To replace the Ricoh Pro C5300s, which was retained as a backup, the company also purchased a Xerox Versant 280 280 digital press and a VeloBlade 64+ digital cutter from Vivid Laminating Technologies.

Haddad explained that the Versant 280 was purchased in August and provided by ASL. He also stated that the VeloBlade64+ was installed two days later after the business moved to its new site. This was a replacement die-cutter Graphtec F-Mark Plus, and the VeloBlade 64+ has been used for detailing work.

The VeloBlade 64+ has enhanced speed for the company, with “productivity three or four times greater”. With the purchase of a tape applicator, the business is now able to machine products such as hotel keycard wallets, coffee cups sleeves, and folders it previously taped by hand.

The latest investments and site move cost the business just over £80,000 in total.

The business purchased a Morgana laminator Pro 450 Pro earlier this year to expand its laminating capabilities and bring it in-house. It also owns an Aerocut Prime from Morgana which arrived about a decade ago.

The eight-staff company, which was established in 2015, mainly serves the hospitality and drinks sectors, and is looking at turnover of around £750,000 for this financial year, also runs an Epson SureColor SC-F2100 direct-to-garment printer with a heat press and pre-treatment machine, purchased at the start of 2021.

Another recent investment was an Easycoat gluing machine supplied by Vivid Laminate Technologies, an Oki Pro A3 White Toner Printer from Amaya UK and a Sawgrass SG1000 A3 Printer that was supplied By The Magic Touch.

Finally, the company has just taken on Ankita Saxena as its new full-time product manager, to boost its e-commerce activity “far beyond where it is now”.

“We want to speed up quoting and estimating, and for Ankita to focus on developing our website,” Haddad said.

In January, two more employees are expected to join the company. The business plans to hire a production apprentice to its team and a marketing manager.