Recent News
During September 2011 we move into Digital Print with the installation of a brand new Ricoh Pro C651EX SRA3 four colour digital press.
The invetsment worth around £100,000 has been bought outright by the business as it expands its print and direct mail offering to clients. Our new investment will print static and variable text and images up to 65 pages per minute. It brings greater flexibilty to the business and allows clients to benefit from colour personalisation.
This investment closely follows the recent installation and £70k Investment in a new Polar115X Plus Guillotine to speed up the process of delivering quality products at Fretwell Print & Direct Mail. The Polar 115X Plus is the first installation in the UK of this product. Inatlled by Heidelberg UK during late July it will bring a 30 - 50% increase in guillotined products through the shop floor.
Continued growth in DM helps Fretwells increase turn over by over 10% in 2010/2011. Our ability to offer clients a total in-house Print & Direct Mail Solution has helped us increase our turnover to over £4.5million in the last year. A significant amount of DM work now comes from regular clients, both in the UK and overseas. "Their flexible attitude to scheduling and the ability to respond quickly to the most difficult jobs makes Fretwell's our first choice supplier" said one Direct Marketing Manager.
Fretwell's respond to Pakistan Emergency. Always willing to help Fretwell Print & Design recently produced over 120,000 Insert packs for a major charity in the Irish Republic. The packs were produced over a 48 hour period including delivery to newspapers in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Ink Jet equipment updated - In September 2010 Fretwell's enhanced its Ink Jet Capability with the installation of a brand new Ink Jet unit. The Astorjet 300p is capable of 600dpi personalisation in black or coloured ink on a wide variety of base stocks.
From 1st April 2010 Fretwell Print & Design Ltd are a member of the Royal Mail Mailing House Scheme. We enter the scheme, like ALL other companies in the UK as Bronze Members. We also have recent experience working with AnPost in the Republic of Ireland sorting to their PostAim requirements.
Further investment continues here at Fretwell Print with the installation of a Buhrs BB300 High Speed envelope enclosing machine. Installed in May 2010 this enhances our Direct Mail offering by more then doubling our enclosing capacity.
In the current economic climate not many businesses continue to invest in new equipment - however here at Fretwell's we like to be at the cutting edge! So, to start 2010 we have invested in a new Muller Prima High Speed binding line. This investment, somewhere in the region of £150,000 will enable us to produce stitched products more efficiently and with its ability to '5 knife trim' gives us even more flexibility.
During 2009 we are made a complete Direct Mail Service available for our clients. Currently we produce a lot of work for clients that could just as easily be mailed directly from ourselves and we already handle complex Direct Mail projects from start to finish. In 2009 we are expanded this service even more. In-house services will include Data Processing, Laser Personalisation, Ink Jet Personalisation and machine fulfillment into envelopes and polythene. Recently we secured a contract for the daily mailing of Insurance Policies and other notable projects include a 90,000 run matched and live stamped pack for a major charity. For more information about our mailing service please contact Paul Cayton.
The very latest Heidelberg Workflow and fully automated CTP was installed in mid 2008. This installation is the central link to our plan of introducing joined up technology throughout all of our business. The system is fully CIP4/JDF compatible. Initial investment is in the region of £125,000.
During the previous 12 months we installed a Heidelberg CD74 5LPX press including Axis Colour Control. This system enable us to achieve ISO12647-2 colour standards. The press compliments the existing Heidelberg SM74-4 and SM74-2.
Managing director Graeme Fretwell said: "We feel we have bought the best press money can buy for the sheet size and configuration we need.
"It is a one back four perfector, which gives us flexibility. The coater means we can get sheets through quicker and turn or finish almost instantly."
The press is specified with AxisControl and Prinect Prepress Interface for closed-loop colour.