Finishing & Screen Printing
Universal Music Chooses St Ives for Major Album Releases
Thursday 05. March 2009 - Finishing completed on the new large format stitching line, built for fast turnaround times and batching efficiencies.
St Ives Blackburn, part of the St Ives Direct division of St Ives plc, produced CD booklets for many of the top 25 albums released by Universal Music over the 2008 Christmas period. The finishing of the booklets was completed on the new stitching line, the Bograma Bookletline 800 stitcher, installed as a UK Beta machine at the Blackburn site in early 2008. By significantly reducing turnaround times, this cutting edge technology enabled St Ives to meet the tight production deadlines required by Universal Music in order to react quickly to market requirements and potential commercial sales. “Universal Music is a long-standing customer of St Ives Music and Multimedia, the St Ives division used to design and produce music and DVD packaging solutions,” explains Mark Vincent, Group Sales Director, St Ives Music and Multimedia. “From receiving each job we had a maximum of three days to supply the completed product.
“Utilising the well-aligned St Ives Group operation and the Bograma line at the St Ives Direct facility, meant that we could meet our customer’s requirements and deliver the products to the usual high standards expected. The CD booklets were for new albums by extremely high-profile artists, such as Take That, The Killers, Stereophonics, Akon and Girls Aloud. It was therefore critical that the fast turnaround necessary to ensure the albums went to market on time did not compromise on first-rate print quality.”
St Ives Blackburn printed Universal Music’s CD booklets on Perfector presses, printing at speeds up to 10,000 impressions per hour. The booklets were then finished on the Bograma stitcher, capable of accommodating a multiple of up to five stitched booklets in a single pass, from a flat printed sheet without any pre-folding required. The integration of multiple folding and stitching processes into one operation also gives better quality control and less wastage.
Thomas Heys, Customer Services Director, St Ives Direct Blackburn comments, “The new stitcher has cut finishing time from two days to 24 hours, enabling us to meet ever-tightening deadlines. Even with print runs of up to one million copies, we could meet Universal Music’s deadlines and provide a very high level of quality and service.”
Vincent concludes, “This is exactly where collaboration between the St Ives divisions comes into its own. We make best use of the equipment and capacity across the Group and add value to the customer service experience.”