Finishing Alliance defeats weather and hails Showcase event a success
In spite of some of the worst weather and travelling conditions this winter the Finishing Alliance (comprising Duplo, Friedheim International and Renz) expressed itself “very satisfied” with the number of visitors who still managed to attend its week-long Showcase event held at the headquarters of Duplo UK in Addlestone, Surrey.
“What was particularly pleasing was the fact that although some visitors could not travel due to the weather at the beginning of the week, they re-arranged their visits to come instead towards the end when conditions had improved,” comments Mark Bristow, managing director of Friedheim International. “This showed great commitment in wanting to support the Finishing Alliance and see all of the highly productive and cost-beneficial equipment that was on display for demonstration. Another very pleasing aspect was the great interest shown in the new Audion CS Matic shrink wrapping machine Friedheim had on show for the first time in the UK.”
A total of 96 visitors from 72 companies attended the week-long Showcase event. All visitors were able to take a protectively shrink-wrapped calendar away with them that had been produced using equipment from all three suppliers, proving conclusively how well a co-operation such as the Finishing Alliance can operate for the benefit of print finishing departments across all aspects of the industry: commercial, digital, packaging and converting.
“There was a lot of interest in our DBMi saddle stitching system which we expected but the unexpected star for us was the new Eurofold CP-375 bi-directional perforating machine which offers huge cost and time savings versus the more traditional cylinder option for perforating,” says Peter Jolly, UK managing director of Duplo. “We find these kind of events are excellent for engaging and interacting with customers in a way that is just not possible at a conventional exhibition. We will certainly be talking with our Finishing Alliance partners Friedheim and Renz about hosting more events like this in the future.”
Iain Bullock, managing director of Renz UK, was pleased with the level of interest shown in the new MOBI 360 semi-automated wire binding machine. “What impressed visitors the most was the ease of use and simple changeover which demonstrated to potential customers the versatility of the machine. This was pleasing to Renz as the machine was specifically developed to encourage companies to keep all their wire binding in-house whether it be book or calendar work. Renz has always found Finishing Alliance events to be a good platform in the UK to showcase our latest technologies. We appreciate the considerable efforts made by visitors to attend the event in spite of the difficult weather and travel conditions.”