Friday-Ad
Friday-Ad chooses Luxel News for enhanced productivity
West Sussex based Friday-Ad was founded in 1975 when the current owners identified a gap in the market for local advertising. When looking to buy a second hand car, they discovered they would have to travel long distances to find one. This resulted in the launch of a four-page advertising newsletter produced at the company's original premises in Uckfield, Sussex.
Today, Friday-Ad is a full colour, free weekly magazine, which includes general advertisements for items such as cars and household goods. As one of the largest independent publishers in the UK, Friday-Ad produces 700,000 to 800,000 magazines a week with an average of 2.5 million readers.
The company has 320 employees working full and part-time including staff at a call centre in South Wales. All procedures are carried out in-house, including design, sales and distribution. The company prints 35 editions of Friday-Ad which is available throughout the South-East, Wales and the Midlands. It also publishes several other weekly advertising publications including the Advantage and Trade It series. Run length of individual editions can vary from 7,000 to 60,000 copies.
Originally, 22 editions of Friday-Ad were being produced at the Uckfield site, but when the number of editions grew to 45, the decision was made to move to larger premises to handle the extra workload. In 2000, the company moved to its new purpose built premises in Sayers Common, West Sussex.
Since then, the company has enjoyed steady growth and in 2007, with demand for colour increasing and the need for faster throughput, Friday-Ad decided to replace its seven-year-old CTP system. The old system was becoming too expensive to maintain and, unable to cope with the volume of work, Friday-Ad decided to investigate alternative CTP solutions by attending exhibitions such as IPEX and researching trade journals.
Andy Woolgar, production director of Friday-Ad, says: "We wanted a CTP system that could keep up with the fast pace of the company and one that could also accommodate future growth. We found the Fuji machines provided high levels of productivity with superb quality, all at a competitive price. We decided to install two Luxel News 80 platesetters together with Fuji's LP-NNV panoramic plates.
"Our old platesetter processed around 32 plates an hour, but with the Luxel News 80 machines we can now process up to 55 panoramic plates an hour. This level of throughput means we have increased our maximum productivity by an impressive 71 per cent. Additionally, being able to output at a resolution of 1270 dpi, the print quality has been of an excellent standard."
As Friday-Ad runs on a 24-hour basis it is vital to always have one platesetter on stand-by. However, as Friday-Ad's platesetter room was originally built for just one machine, fitting in two machines was going to be a very tight squeeze. Andy comments: "We were very impressed with the innovative way Fuji coped with such little space in which to fit the two machines. Fuji specially configured both machines so they would fit into the designated area, making optimum use of the floor space.
"We are delighted with the Luxel News machines, when they are both running at the same time it is an impressive sight to see, pure poetry in motion. As with all new installations there can be a steep learning curve for operators as it takes time to get used to a new machine and system. However, the Luxel News manual is very user-friendly with an easy-to-use style. In addition to this, Fuji has provided us with excellent customer service, with same day support throughout the whole process.
"As a company we are always interested in future printing technologies. The switch to Fuji Luxel News machines has not only helped us improve productivity but has also provided us with a system which is ready for Fujifilm's chemistry-free violet newspaper plate, PRO-V, which is expected to be launched in the near future."
