The Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) has recognised the high standard achieved by Heritage Envelopes at the 2014 FTA Excellence in Flexography Awards held in Baltimore in January this year.
The awards involved a comprehensive panel of 33 judges who deliberated over several days to make their decisions against predetermined targets. The group of judges were tasked with evaluating each job depending on the degree of difficulty and consistency within selected categories including the complexity of print, registration tolerances and substrate printability amongst other added requirements.
As a market leading Lancashire based manufacturer who employs over 130 workers and produces nearly 2.5 billion envelopes annually, we received the gold award in the category for ‘line – uncoated paper’.
Mark Sears, CEO of Heritage Envelopes said, “The Company recognises the increasing demand from customers for high quality flexographic images and in an increasingly demanding market we must not only react to this demand but work harder to pro-actively push the boundaries of our capabilities. We are delighted to have received the award during this, our first year of entering the awards and to be recognised by the FTA on a world stage. Heritage Envelopes have been continually improving our capabilities in flexo print to offer customers the highest quality available in this field. Although we have been supplying high quality flexo for many years the latest improvements will broaden our offer to our customers, many of which in the past have only considered Heritage for basic flexo envelopes and with this being our first entry, it is viewed by us as a positive step in demonstrating what we can do.”
Working as a team Claire Clarke, who manages the Studio Department has worked with the Technicians and Works Manager, Tommy Cathie to utilise the ongoing investment the business is making to implement the systems and processes required to achieve the high quality images which Heritage are producing on a daily basis for customers throughout the mailing industry.
Mark, who joined the business in 1985 and today is CEO, continues to explain, “The future for the business lies in investing in our people, in our equipment and in our systems, not only to compete through efficiency and quality but also to offer a wider range of capabilities in flexo technology for printed envelopes.” Heritage, with the backing of group owners Mayer-network GmbH, have invested approximately £1.2m in additional reel-fed envelope making machines, Studio equipment and in its IT systems to support the expansion of its high volume, high quality flexo capabilities. This investment will support over 20 new jobs in all areas of the business which the company believes further demonstrates its ongoing commitment to customers and staff to re-invest in the business which operates in what is today, a challenging market place. Mark said, “The envelope is the first image the consumer sees when the post lands in your letterbox and so if you want to make an impression then it makes sense to be able to print the customers’ corporate logos or business messages and advertisements to the highest standard available in the most cost efficient way and we think that’s good for our customers.” He continues, “Equally important is investment in producing new and innovative solutions to help our customers to be more efficient in their own businesses, such as our recently launched Autoflat mailing wallet design.” Autoflat is the new envelope designed specifically to reduce downtime and stoppages during the inserting process and although it is early days the patented design has attracted a lot of interest with the major mailing companies who are eager to explore the benefits it offers for high speed and high volume mail insertion.
