Two members of staff from Warrington-based The Finishing Point (TFP) have been declared proficient at maintaining and repairing Duplo booklet makers after attending a training course at Duplo’s headquarters in Addlestone.
TFP distributes, installs and maintains a range of finishing equipment across the UK. The majority of its portfolio comes from Duplo, though it also handles tech from other manufacturers including Renz, Muller Martini, MBO and Horizon.
James Robertson, a director at TFP, commented, ‘We have recently expanded our service team and now have five service engineers on the road. We have a dedicated service co-ordinator and a dedicated consumables desk so our customers can be sure of speaking to someone who can provide them with the advice they need and get an engineer scheduled to assist them quickly and efficiently. Our service team is the backbone of the company.’
The latest edition to that team is 17 year-old Jimmy Ambler, who has spent much of the last 10 months at Bluetree Group servicing their finishing lines and has just completed his Duplo booklet maker training. Mr Ambler commented on his experience so far. ‘It’s interesting, and I just love the fault-finding side of servicing and repairing these machines,’ he said. ‘I spend about two days a week at Bluetree and the rest shadowing TFP’s other engineers. I’m good with Horizon equipment and three knife trimmers, the problem-solving aspect of the job is what drew me initially. It’s always different, the customers are great, their operators are helpful and I’m just glad I’m out and about every day doing something different. I prefer going out on the national accounts – the further out the better I say!’
Joining Mr Ambler on the training was James Roberts, a veteran service engineer who is helping the young apprentice with his career path. ‘Jimmy is great,’ Mr Roberts said. ‘I think apprenticeship programmes are really important, it’s about nurturing the next generation and getting them to understand that how important the industry is to the country. He’s right, the fault-finding and problem-solving aspect of the job is why we do what we do. It’s the satisfaction of fixing an expensive machine so that it does what it was designed to do.’
Mr Robertson concluded by summarising TFP’s thoughts on apprenticeships. ‘Employing an apprentice has been a very positive experience for us. James has been an asset to the engineering team across a broad range of jobs. He has assisted with service on multiple booklet makers, collators and guillotines and has assisted with machine moves and new installations. He is welcomed by our customers who appreciate the need to train the next generation of engineers and we are grateful to many suppliers but particularly Duplo UK who have welcomed him on to training programmes. We would certainly recommend the apprenticeship scheme and would consider employing another apprentice in the future.’
