General manager, Darren Comrie, says the company outsourced most of its printing while the premises were being refurbished, but it is now back in action having retained all its former clients.

Luckily the company already had a Heidelberg 8-colour 102 perfector press on order when fire swept through its factory. This arrived just three weeks later and there was only a short delay before installation because the builders who’d been on site working on the new bindery were able to refurbish the existing fire-damaged factory in time.

Format also has a new 5-colour press with a coating unit which arrived six weeks later from Kuala Lumpur, two new folders, a guillotine and image control, all of it purchased through Heidelberg.

Comrie also attributes the fast recovery to the outstanding service supplied by Heidelberg New Zealand which swung into action immediately.

He says the insurers were keen to work with one supplier for most of the equipment, and Format already had a good relationship with Heidelberg.

“Heidelberg were excellent. They really made things happen in the time of crisis by sourcing machinery quickly and bringing in their engineers from overseas to help.

“They were very quick and efficient and they’ve played a huge part in our recovery.”

He says Heidelberg’s engineers and staff have remained available throughout to ensure that things went smoothly after the installation as well and he believes the company has been helped to its feet by the supplier.

“Time is an important factor when you are recovering from a crisis like this because customers will only support you for a certain period before they have to look at other options. I really take my hat off to Heidelberg for pulling out all stops for us.”

In the meantime the new equipment has made a big difference to output and while the company had already planned to replace its older 8-colour press with a new one, Format is now set up to expand its services to the market.

“We’ve ended up with a whole new plant and it has made a big difference in terms of capacity and speed. The new presses are very quick, jobs that may have taken 18 hours on the former 8-colour in particular, are now only taking 10-12 hours and our make-ready times have been cut by three-quarters,” he says.

“It has given us a brand new opportunity, whereas before, we were somewhat hamstrung because we were at full capacity.”

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