Manchester brochure and booklet specialist Browns Print has increased production capacity and flexibility, and reduced outsourcing with a Horizon StitchLiner Mark III supplied by IFS.
The installation is part of a £2.4m ‘future-proofing’ investment that also included a new Heidelberg XL-75 ten-colour press installed in March 2023. Browns Print also runs a Heidelberg XL106 and Versafire and Linoprint digital presses.
Managing director Danny Baldwin explained, ‘We had an older StitchLiner model and we had been running that for a few years. We were running our Muller Martini stitching line at full capacity constantly and the StitchLiner was taking more and more work. We needed more capacity. We talked to the IFS team and they suggested that the StitchLiner Mark III with two-up kit would be faster and more flexible. We didn’t look at any other options on the market because we know and trust Horizon systems. They are very reliable.
‘We also liked the fact it could produce landscape work. For those jobs, especially short-run work, it was time consuming to finish them in-house. We were also sending some of that work out or we would price ourselves out of the job. Now we can say yes to everything knowing that that it can be completed quickly and cost effectively in house.’
Cost justification for the stitcher was straightforward, according to Mr Baldwin: ‘With an increase in output of circa 25%, the machine will pay for itself in no time. It is quick to set up and easy to run. Originally, we only had one operator trained on it so our bindery manager was also trained and he picked it up very quickly.’
