April 29, 2022
Progress on Capital Plans
By Byron Loeppky, Senior VP of Books
2022 will be the year that Friesens acquires its first inkjet press. We have purchased an HP T250HD press with brilliant ink. This press is a 4/4 press that can run colour or black work, use coated or uncoated paper, and has a 20.5” wide roll stand. The press is expected to arrive in August or September.
We are also pleased to announce that we have purchased a finishing system from Müller Martini that will convert the rolls from our inkjet press into a glued book block. This machine is called a Sigma line and will arrive sometime early in 2023.
The purchasing did not stop there. We have also come to an agreement with Müller Martini on an Allegro Perfect Binder. This Perfect Binder will have 6 pockets and a book block feeder. It is geared towards digitally printed product but can help with sheetfed offset work as well. It is expected to arrive in August.
We have also entered into a co-develop deal with Müller Martini on an imposition software effort called Connex. This will allow us to use one intuitive, imposition software for all our press formats.
One thing you will notice is that all our equipment is coming in later in the year than we would like, and this is the result of supply chain challenges from our suppliers as well. They too are facing some of the same struggles that we are, resulting in much longer lead times than usual.
While there are some additional smaller items, I hope the message you receive from us is our commitment to a continuing investment in our business. We expect to spend in the neighbourhood of $8 MM this year. In addition, we anticipate putting deposits on more equipment in the second quarter of 2022 so our 2023 capital purchases will arrive in our facilities in the first quarter of 2023. Watch for upcoming announcements in future Paper Trails.