Peterborough-based GP Print is celebrating a successful 2021, having installed a full suite of finishing equipment from Duplo.

This programme of investment has seen the commercial printer install a PFi Blade B3+ digital cutting table, DBM-350 Digital Booklet System with DSS-350 square spine module, DC-646 automatic slitter, cutter, creaser and a DB-290 single clamp binder all tied in with the Ultimate Impostrip software.

The installations have helped GP Print, which operates a Xerox Versant 4100 with another Versant 80 as back-up, to increase capacity and to automate many processes that would otherwise have needed skilled operators. The company now employs only four staff to produce commercial and promotional print, short run packaging, printed garments and more.

Peter Martyr, one of the directors of GP Print, commented, ‘We purchase machines that are built to last. We look for high quality and reliability in both our machines and our suppliers. We’ve had the DC-645 for quite a while now but it’s still so reliable and we put so much through it that I really didn’t want to run it into the ground. So, we purchased the newer DC-646 to take over, while the older machine now runs as back up. We’ve seen how Duplo have upgraded the DC-646 from the older generation through touches that go a long way in real world applications. The pile is higher, it’s faster, the registration and bar-code reading are superb and the automation – load it and leave it – Duplo calls it, is such a labour saver. We are able to get more out of the machines then perhaps Duplo intended but it’s refreshing!’

Rob Thurston, head of sales at Duplo UK, added. ‘I initially started speaking to Peter about automation and how the Impostrip software could help him with his capacity issues, this quickly developed into him discovering everything that we had to offer and jumping straight into it. It didn’t take long before he had a strategy in place for all the machines he needed. Seeing the difference Duplo automation has made at GP Print is astounding – and proves that the full eco system is commercially viable.’