-
Supplier for rotary printed vinyl
HELP
Anybody know of another supplier of rotary printed custom colour vinyl now that Fineline Converting have got the liquidators in.
We buy it in quantities of 250 or 500 metres and get through between 2 and 3 kilometres of the stuff per year so the loss of the supplier is a big problem for us.
-
25 Replies
-
Just wait for 15mins John. No doubt Oor Lambie will be filling the gap in the market as we type! 😉
Oh, and if you hadn’t already considered this Robert then I’m in for 10% commission for the seed planting.
S’not as if you’re busy…………..
-
That’s as may be Steve, but I need 500 metres now. Not the usual Lambie timescale.
😀
-
john i have 500 metres boxed, taped and ready to go mate. parcel force will be here in 25 mins.. you should have it around 9am tomorrow mate..
you can pay by credit card, cheque, bacs etc.. infact ill come down there and pop it on if you wanna catch lunch with our new sign man in spain…
now how is that for service mate… 😉
Ahem..ahem… 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆
sorry john, just pulling your leg mate..
im stuck for flood coating too now…. 😉 -
Excellent service Mr. Lambie. Especially impressive are the mind reading skills as I haven’t even mentioned the colour yet!
Will these skills extend to keeping our stocks topped up without us needing to re-order? 😀
Seriously though, the best alternative I have found so far is Cox Plastics who will supply Avery 800, matched to my colour, at about £5.50 per 1220 wide metre. This actually works out cheaper per square metre than Finelines rotary print at £3.03 for 380 sprocketed. And it’s proper vinyl too.
The only drawback is quantity. The minimum order is 5 rolls of 1220 which equates roughly to 750 metres at 380, which is a bit more than we would normally order in one go but we can swallow that if we have to.
If anyone can suggest an alternative I would be pleased to hear of it before I make a final decision.
-
It was strange john!
I woke up during the night after having this dream about you needing vinyl’s.. 😮
I quickly called the “night shift” and told them to start running your order..
When I got to work they had almost completed your 500 metres of this red?
Anyway. Came on the net and saw your post.. and thought wow! I could be the next John Edward..
I replied to your post and that was that.. 😆 😆 😆 😆i do amaze myself sometimes you know! 😉
-
Have you thought about going to the auction of the company’s equipment?
I would have thought that their ‘rotary’ flood coating machine would be available at a good price.
A new business in an instant!
-
actualy.. i have richard!
got any dates mate 😉im going to be speaking to them on monday.. so hopefuly i can get some info.. fingers crossed 😉
-
I hadn’t thought about it yet Richard but I’m going to need vinyl long before any disposal of assets happens. I should say IF it happens because I suspect that an offer for the whole lot will be made to the liquidator by the previous management.
The other problem is space. We are full to bursting now and to be honest I don’t want the aggro of moving to larger premises and getting back on the mortgage treadmill. This is also one of the reasons we don’t have a wide format printer and buy our prints from you!!! 😀
So Rob, you are not as good as you think you are. It’s a blue! (:)
-
quote :So Rob, you are not as good as you think you are. It’s a blue!
damn it john, im a supplier… you should know by now we always get orders wrong!!! 😉 😉 😆 😆 😆 😆
would this be the same KPMF blue i had to use 2 weeks ago on those vans you needed done in falkirk? 😉
would you beleive that was them just getting back round to us after all that time.. 😮 😆
they were happy enough when i finished.. got the four of them done in about 4 hours or so..
while i was there they complained about a signs express or signarama franchise they used regular.. they had applied 3M diamond grade i think it was to an ambulance.. the stuff was coming back off before it left to be delivered… 😮 😕
said they would give me a call when the need some more stuff done… 😉
-
That’s the very colour Rob. Not a particularly nice blue is it?
I’m pleased that they got you to fit them in the end and that you got something out of it following the fiasco with the original batch. One thing about them is that they don’t change suppliers easily once they have found someone they can rely on so you should hopefully see plenty more of them. We have been churning them out since 1990. I think Scotland has about 120 vans on a four year change cycle, say 30 per year on average. That’s just the one end user and they have plenty of other clients.
Anyway, from September onwards don’t be surprised if they come to you in Avery 800 series.
-
‘scuse my ignorance but what is “rotary printed custom colour vinyl?”
Gav
-
It is simply vinyl flood coated to a particular colour. Usually we get our tame screen printer to run us off the required quantity and that works fine for a one, or even a few, off.
However, a screen printer is limited to printing a length as big as his largest screen, for our man that is sixty inches and for this particluar job is simply not long enough. Also for repeat work there tends to be a lot of wastage.
Fineline Converting (Autac) had a rotary screen printing machine that could put any colour you like on a 50 metre roll of 380 material at a time so for all practical purposes it was just like using normal vinyl.
-
Methinks if Fineline get up and running again, that would be one machine they would definitely try to keep. It wasn’t used just to floodcoat vinyl. We used to print a lot of chequers and chevron tapes for safety marking and the emergency services. Good bit of kit, pity it wasn’t a bit wider, like 500 or 610mm.
-
Unless you need to buy large quantities of these products, digital printing might be a good alternative to consider.
I’m actually surprised that none of the Gerber EDGE owners in the wings have popped into this discussion to offer their services…so this is on their behalf.
One of the unique features of their equipment is the ability to print well over 3000 different SPOT COLOURS, using Gerber’s Spectratone system. There is a Spectratone guide available to EDGE owners to help you specify your colours.
In addition to amazing colour matching abilities EDGE owners can also offer you thousands of catchy special effects.
-
I’ve printed/flooded material using the Gerber edge and had good results. Not recommended for long lengths ( I think they suggest a maximum print length of 10m which isn’t bad) because the head tends to underperform. Also material must be very flat without imperfections as the edge doesn’t have any tolerance of uneven surfaces like a liquid based print would.
As I mentioned earlier, we used to print a wide range of jobs on our rotary and one of the advantages was the ability to print thousands of metres a day. Not many people have a call for that really so it was a rare old bit of kit.
-
big G
Do I get the impression that you have/had a connection with Fineline? 😀
The reason I ask, a subject brought up by yourself, is that I have to do a quote for a job which includes a fair bit of chequered tape. Black onto reflective yellow.
I have been holding back on it now that the only source of which I was aware has disappeared.
added on edit….
I’ve decided to go with Avery 800 for the blue flood. Their sample is a reasonable colour match and I need to be getting some into stock ASAP.
-
I WAS a Fineline employee until a couple of weeks ago. Have you approached them to see if they have what you want in stock? I hear that the liquidators were allowing some production to continue last week but I don’t know how much or who for.
-
I haven’t spoken to them. Couldn’t get an answer on the phone.
I wouldn’t have thought that they would have had any of my blue in stock as it was printed to order. With regards to the chequered tape they may well have as I suspect that they were making it for this clients current supplier. However, it’s not worth me quoting if I can’t ensure continuity of supply as that would cause too much aggravation and embarrasment if I won the buisness but had to explain in a couple of months time that we couldn’t supply it anymore.
Unless anyone has a better idea I think I have got to wait until the dust settles and production starts again, either with a Fineline2 or whoever buys the machine.
-
Couldn’t any of you raise the money then? 😀
A little birdy tells me that Graphic Craft of Bedford bought all Fineline’s assets the from the liquidators yesterday.
big G…
I don’t know what you are intending to do now, but if you want your job back a little time spent on the telephone might pay dividends. Good luck.
-
Cox Plastics delivered my colour matched Avery 800 blue this morning.
Excellent service from all concerned.
😀
-
Good to hear john we too are waiting on delivery of vinyls done in the same fashion 😉
-
Did it arrive Robert, and were you happy with it?
I am delighted. One problem we had with the old flood coated stuff was that it would discolour, turning a blotchy greyish colour. The customer complained, ten years ago, that it was fading but I reckon it was more likely oxidisation of the surface of the ink because if we gave it a quick polish the colour returned. We just pointed out to the client that it only happened to drivers that didn’t clean their vans occasionally and he went off to sort them out and we heard no more of it. Neverthelesss, we still see vehicles on the road exhibiting this problem and it offended my sense of professionalism, but with the new colour matched stuff this problem has gone away.
Happy bunnies all round.
We’ve nearly used the first batch and have just ordered another 250 metres.
-
Dont you buggers ever sleep.
Being as cox plastics are only suppliers you should delve a little deeper.
Kpmf in wales also will do 1 off colours but there was a minum order which escapes me at the moment. might be worth giving them a ring/e.mail in case you need them in the future -
Hi john
We did go ahead with Cox. We were quoted the same as you mate.
Sent them the colour etc and received or swatch sample through to confirm.
We confirmed it and told them to go ahead. They said sure thing the price will be EX-amount.. The girl thought why are they giving me the price again when they already gave use the quote and that was the exact same as what you paid.
She checked back and they now wanted almost 3 pounds a metre more! 😮
We called back and said hold on a minute you said this and that..
They said, no sorry. That was a mistake “if” we did say that. The price is this!
We don’t mind paying extra by any means.. But when buying 5 full rolls at a time that £3 adds up. We already had things sorted out with the customer due to the fall of fineline and they went along with what we proposed. Only for COX to tell me the initial quote was “wrong”This is not unusual for me.. This type of thing is only one of the reasons i choose not to deal with them for the UKSG.
We buy very little from them these days but before they merged as a group we spent a small fortune every month.
Do they think they are getting to big for their boots? Im more liable to think its because they know they all have a grip on us as the only supplier for this types of colour matched materials due to fineline going bust.I actually meant to call you on this john to see who you dealt with there etc. but you know what im like for reminding to do something.. Ahem 😳 😉
bob was it not finline that did the matching mate? as you know tehy went bust! ro can we approach KPMF for the flood coating/colour matching?
-
Bob…
Yes, I do sleep but not always when I want to. Last night was particularly bad and I got up at 2.30am, probably the same time as you were going to bed! 😀 If it’s any consolation I did go back to bed at 6.00am and got another couple of hours in. Funnily enough, when I’m on holiday I don’t have a sleeping problem. What do you reckon? Stress? 🙄
Robert…
We didn’t have a re-quote problem. To make sure I’ve just checked the invoice and we paid £5.56 per metre. I don’t know if they made a mistake because I have to say that I was surprised how cheap it was but if they did slip up they stuck with their quote, as I would expect them to, and as I would have to in the same position with my own clients.
Your comments on Cox Plastics surprise me as we have never had anything other than impeccable service from them and on one occasion, together with Avery themselves, they bailed me out of a very serious problem at some cost to themselves. I can’t speak highly enough of them and that is why we give them so much business.
Another reason is service. They use their own transport and provided we place an order before 4.30pm the stuff is delivered between 6.00am and 6.30am the next morning. In all the orders we have given them this has not happened only three times because they did not have the material in stock and had to get some from another branch. These were all obscure colours where it would not be reasonable to expect them to keep large quantities and I would not hold that against them.
We deal with the Northampton branch. Our rep is Kelvin Furniss, who has been there for many years, so long in fact that he is the only rep we have ever had in fourteen years of dealing with them. This may be a valid point as we have been able to build a good relationship with him, which is impossible to do with some other companies where they appoint a new know-nothing muppet every couple of years.
By the same token another supplier who was always our first port of call and also gave good service gets very little business from us these days. It’s not that they ever did anything wrong, just that there were so many staff changes in a short period of time that the personal relationship we had with them just evaporated and they went from being regarded as partners and colleagues to just another supplier. This should also serve as a reminder to us all about how easy it is to lose clients without ever making a mistake and not letting ourselves fall into the same trap.
Log in to reply.
