Ideal Print finishing article in Print Week

Ideal ramps up capacity with 'million-sheet-a-day' wire binding auto punchBy Jerome Butcher Thursday, 24 February 2011

Ideal Finishing has invested in its first automatic punch in a bid to increase capacity.

The company, which started in January last year, installed a refurbished James Burn Lhermite auto punch, and a RileCart TP480 binding machine supplied by Binding Store earlier this month.


Ideal Finishing managing director Paul Forrester said: "We made these investments to increase capacity and to produce more on a daily basis. At full speed, it can punch a million sheets a day."


The finishing house has expanded over the past 13 months and currently turns over £500,000 a year, according to Forrester.

Ideal Finishing has moved from a 139sqm facility where it employed three staff to operating a 465sqm site. It now employs 11 production staff.

Forrester said the company would be making future investments and was looking to buy at least one other auto punch, similar to the James Burn Lhermite, and another Moby 500 binder.

"The new ones do look interesting but the older ones are more robust. We’re looking down the second-hand route rather than new." he added.

Ideal Finishing, which was started by Forrester and fellow director Chris Carden, installed a 10/20 station Duplex A3/A4 collator from collating machine supplier Col-Tec Solutions