Midland Regional Printers increases its die-cutting capacity with Easymatrix

Midland Regional Printers will add an Easymatrix die-cutter at its Nottingham plant in October. The company, which invites its customers to ‘bring your brand to life’, believes this machine will open up new sales opportunities.

Kate Tew, sales and marketing director, said: “We recently installed a Speedmaster XL 106-6+L to operate alongside a similarly specified Speedmaster CD 102 so we needed to invest in the die-cutting area to keep up with the increased throughput. The Easymatrix will handle a wide range of work including toy, pet, beauty and pharmaceutical packaging.”

The customers of the family run company, which has been in business for close to 50 years, include Wickes, Sainsbury’s, Speedo, John Lewis and Boots as well as hotels and charities.

Midland Regional Printers will retain its Sanwa for one shift, but the Easymatrix will operate on two shifts with a view to move to three shifts in the future.

“We undertook extensive testing. Managing director Steve Bates, technical director Michael Tew and one operator went to the Heidelberg Packaging Centre at Wiesloch and were very impressed by the demonstration there. This is a machine that will give us significantly shorter make-readies, a faster mechanical speed and increased overall output and it marries up well with our presses with its similarly styled control panel,” said Tew.

The Easymatrix is a 7,700sph machine that can handle stocks of 90 to 2,000gsm (and corrugated up to 4mm thickness), and in formats from 400 x 360mm to 1060 x 760mm. It is a very automated model and the stripping station takes away the waste to increase efficiency.

Packaging is just one part of the Midland Regional Printers portfolio. It also offers product design, commercial print, self-adhesive labels and in-house finishing with storage and distribution options.

Paul Thompson, product specialist for Heidelberg UK, said: “The Easymatrix is great for Midland Regional Printers and their applications. We see this as a very versatile and affordable model that suits a range of applications including packaging, greetings cards and POS.”