The Melbourne firm invested about $220,000 in a Zund G3 cutting line, which arrived at its Sunshine West site in early April, said co-owner Jamie Xuereb.

Xuereb told ProPrint that the cutting line's key feature is a tandem vacuum system, which allows printers to unload one sheet while another is cutting.

"The dual vacuum has been very helpful, especially on jobs with more than 100 boards that need to be cut," he said.

"We’ve saved a couple of hours a day in packaging alone, because we can make our own custom boxes. We can also offer jobs really quickly in a shape or size that isn’t standard."

Xuereb said Mediapoint had also improved the quality of its finishing as the G3 had taken over some tasks that had been done manually.

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Peter Wood from distributor Intergraphic Technologies said Mediapoint was the first company in Australia to install the dual-vacuum cutting line.

"For Mediapoint it was always about being able to supply their growing list of customers with high-quality print and signage on time at a competitive price, and to do this they needed to bring all of their finishing in-house," said Wood.

"The tandem vacuum system allows the active working area to be divided into front and back processing zones, allowing the operator to load and unload material onto the inactive zone while the job is being processed in the active zone.

"It means that the cutting beam simply moves from zone to zone without stopping for unloading."

Meanwhile, Xuereb said Mediapoint was on track to turn over more than $1.2 million this financial year and grow more than 20%.

Xuereb told ProPrint that the five-staff business partly owed its success to a strategy of working with lots of smaller clients and avoiding a dependency on major accounts.

"We've got a lot of little clients. Having a lot of little customers all adds up. I think that's really helped us. We never want to be the guys that are dealing with massive customers. We've also got a lot of repeat clients, which has held us in good stead."

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