22 May 2023

The Life of a Finishing Company and broadening service offerings to Prosper

James Wheeler, his sister Emma Miles and brother in law Darren miles have shown their resiliency and adaptability over the years of change across our sector with a wide range of product offerings. They run three businesses K&L Laminators, PJI Packing and Kensetts in the Brighton and Hove area but serve customers Nationally. They are third generation to a company that started in 1884.

They have mapped the changing requirements and opportunities some might say ‘pivoted’, but it’s just adapting to the market and surviving. ‘We have had to change our service offerings as the nature of trade finishing has changed enormously over the years, in some ways we are even more valued with our specialist knowledge, and erosion of skills internally within print businesses. The need for specialist skills is back. However in today’s environment, automation has become an essential investment for a host of reasons. The overwhelming theme for technology in finishing is the streamlining of tasks to reduce touchpoints and speed up the process/accuracy/security. Logically, speed is a requirement given that faster and faster equipment placed upstream in production could mean a bottleneck in finishing and we can offer additional capacity when required.’

They have seen a big take up in carton work alongside a requirement for case binding.

K& L laminators 

Laminating 

2 machines – special finishes - SRA4 – B1

Silk Screen Varnishing / Printing Line 

Spot UV, Silk Screen Printing, Rub Silver, Stencil Re Moist Gumming, Scratch & Sniff    SRA3 – B1

Foil Blocking / Embossing / De bossing 

5 machines 1 Platen, 2 Clamshells, Cylinder & Flatbed -  SRA5 - B1

Creasing / Perforating / Kiss Cutting / Die Cutting & Creasing / Embossing 

Dies made from PDF / cutter guides supplied

A3 Platen, B2 Cylinders SRA6 – B2, B1 Flat bed – B3 to B1 

Tab cutting / Mylar Tab cutting 

Tab sizes - 7mm - 10mm - 13mm - 15mm -Various combinations for flights and sizes - Mylar Plastic reinforcement

Encapsulating Finishes - Gloss, Matt, Self- adhesive backing, 

Folding & Gluing / Taping 

Automatic non capacity pockets / wallets - 1 or 2 glue. Automatic inline double sided taping

Inline scoring / perforating and folding 

Hand Finishing

PJI Packing

Hand working specialists: including Collating, hand folding, gluing, inserting and taping, eyeletting

Kensetts

Trimming & Folding 

Miniature folding / Leaflet folding - Roll, Concertina, Closed Gatefold 

Section Folding, Map Folding 

Inkjet Numbering - Automatic number whilst folding / codes printed from CSV files

Peelable Glue applied in line

Bograma leaflet/notebook die-cutting

Fold, Stitch & Trim 8 Station & Cover feeder / 4^th & 5^th Knife for 2 up Work 

In line endorse folding

Slim line stitching heads, 2 or 4 loop stitching, Lego stitch, Coloured wire.

Inkjet Numbering - Automatic number on cover whilst stitching / codes printed from CSV files

PUR / Perfect Binding / Burst Binding 

16 Station Gatherer/ 1 Hand Feed Station/Book Block feeder

Thread Sewing

Singer Sewing

Collating / Wire o binding / Plastic Spiral Binding

2 x 20 Station Collators / 2 x Automatic Punches / 3 Hand Punches / 3 Semi Auto Wire’o’ Binders

1 Automatic Wire’o’ Binder 

Drilling, hand wiring, stab stitching, eyeletting, hand / bench work

Packing & Distribution

Shrink wrapping, Poly-bagging, plastic / paper banding

New services available from April 23

Case Making/Paper overboard Covers & Case Binding, Ram Punching