Jones & Brooks scores UK first with Prinect Production Manager

Print Solutions

Jones & Brooks is the first UK company to sign up for the ‘pay as you go’ volume based pricing Prinect Production Manager solution from Heidelberg. At the same time, it is beefing up its digital offering by installing a Versafire CP.

The Prinect Production Manager is a means of installing a workflow on virtually a rental basis. Jones & Brooks has elected to have the pre-press modules configured specifically to their business needs and they pay for it in line with their monthly plate usage. This makes payment simple and marries up with the peaks and troughs in the business calendar.

‘I loved the flexibility of this new workflow investment package from Heidelberg and when we did the sums it made good business sense,’ said Ronnie Blair, managing director of the Rochdale company.

‘Heidelberg configures the workflow to our specific needs and we can adapt the configuration or add other workflow modules if we need to. This will enhance our file preparation for work across the different technologies we have here. The Prinect workflow modules are well proven in the field so we are not pioneering new technology so much as a new and easy way to fund it.’

At the same time the company has elected to purchase the Versafire CP, a 110 pages a minute press which produces colour to a high quality and which also has the option to produce 6 page portrait or four page landscape work with the new 700 mm banner tray. This is a press that can handle a very wide range of substrates, can personalise and is, by design, easy to maintain.

By taking the Digital Front End (DFE) to drive the Versafire CP, Jones & Brooks ensures that if it extends its workflow its digital as well as its litho operations could be linked in.

Many companies are using both litho and digital equipment in tandem and this is the case for Jones & Brooks. The company, which attributes 80% of its turnover to the NHS, installed a Speedmaster SX 74-5+L, a five colour and coater and a bookletmaker earlier this year. The additional workflow and digital press further underline the company’s commitment to the future after 140 years of trading.

‘We have celebrated our anniversary well with all this investment. This enhances staff morale but also ensures we are really up to date and can continue to offer the efficiency, flexibility and fulfilment which our customers rightly expect of us,’ said Ronnie.