(L-R) Steve Forster, vice chairman and financial director, Albert Dass, chairman and founder, Matt Dass and Dennis Ebeltoft, joint managing directors.

Springfield Solutions is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month. In September, the company installed a second Screen Truepress Jet L350UV inkjet label press, one year after investing in the first machine. 

Based in Hull in the UK, Springfield Solutions specialises in brand management, digital print and online media solutions from video to app creation. The all-digital company has been celebrating 40 years of innovation throughout the whole of 2015, remembering and marking all the company’s achievements, since it was established by present chairman, Albert Dass, in 1975.

Core values

Along with the new investment, a new rebrand is being launched as part of the celebrations. Joint managing director, Matt Dass, son of founder Albert, said, ‘We wanted to use this year to remember those and reflect on how far we have come, but also to look forward to where we are going and where we want to be. That is why we decided to mark 40 years of being incorporated with an extensive rebrand. Our name is Springfield Solutions but we felt we wanted to clarify what the solutions part of the name represented. We want to ensure all our customers and the wider market know which areas we excel at and I believe our new brand identity communicates that clearly.’

He added that the company’s new strategy is underpinned by four brand pillars; quality, service, honesty and innovation. ‘Everything we talk about and do falls under one or more of these values,’ he said. ‘As a company we have always bought into these values, but we have never before expressed them as we have done now and that has been an excellent way of establishing exactly what we stand for and communicating that to our staff, customers and the market alike.’

More inkjet power

The second Truepress Jet L350UV press is part of the company’s ongoing investment programme, which also includes two Screen JetConverter L350 finishing systems.

‘We invested in a second Screen Truepress to build capacity,’ said joint managing director, Dennis Ebeltoft. ‘Our first Truepress is performing very well and has generated significant growth in work from existing clients and attracted new customers so it was an easy decision to choose another. They produce great quality and are fantastic work horses – they just run and run.’

One of the presses is integrated with a Screen JetConverter L350 finishing system for inline varnishing, lamination, die-cutting and slitting. The other JetConverter is standalone. ‘With online and offline finishing capability we can handle both long and short runs very efficiently,’ explained Mr Ebeltoft.

For full integration, the Screen presses are linked into the company’s Cerm MIS system to provide accurate job management, production cost analysis and control. This allows the company to maximise efficiency throughout and allocate jobs to the best press.

Breaking records

Mr Ebeltoft predicts 2015 will be a record-breaking year for the company. By the end of June, it had printed almost 65 million labels, setting an end of year target of in the region of 130 million labels. It is now handles about 2000 jobs a month, up from 800-1000 just two years ago.

‘We have seen a 21% increase in jobs, with nearly 16,000 completed this year and more than 4.3 million metres of labels printed in the first six months of 2015,’ said Mr Ebeltoft. ‘We have also witnessed a year on year increase since converting to an all-digital print room three years ago, offering clients’ greater flexibility, quicker turnarounds and consistency on every run.’

‘Springfield Solutions was the first company to install a Truepress Jet L350UV in Europe,’ explained Brian Filler, president of Screen Europe. ‘Clearly, it was a leap of faith for the company but the press has done what we said it would do and, together with the JetConverter L350, has given an innovative and far sighted company the tools to grow its business.’