THE SPECIAL ONE
Saroglia shines for FineCut

Watford’s FineCut Finishing was heading into new territory when it installed a Saroglia FUB from UK supplier TCS (Terry Cooper Services). The Italian built FUB is a three-in-one machine offering foil blocking, embossing and die cutting, but it was the foil blocking capability which interested the management team of Jason and Chris Woods as they sought to expand into a specialist market.

“We’re specialist finishers,” says Sales Director Jason Woods, “and we wanted a special foil blocking machine to help us process the work others can’t do. When we looked at the market for foil blocking machines it was clear that the Saroglia was at the top end in terms of both price and specification, but we concluded that cutting corners would be a false economy.”

“Quality is vital, but in our game the real key is versatility,” Mr Woods continues. “With the Saroglia we can foil block onto paper, card, display board, PVC, suede and even leather, and the results are always great. Foil blocking is one area of finishing which does require some skill but here is a machine which offers the operator plenty of help, it is well engineered, well thought out and quick to set up.”

FineCut offers a comprehensive finishing service and has a wide variety of trade customers which are predominantly printers in the South of England. Its customers also include designers and print management companies. It has a strong reputation for producing show card mounted point of sale products. “The one common factor is, we can’t get it wrong,” says Jason Woods. “We are always the last part of a production process which can be long, so if we make mistakes, going back to square one can be very expensive. Reliability is essential, which is another reason for buying the best equipment.”

Mr Woods also points to the Saroglia’s other capabilities as a major plus point. “When we bought it there was no guarantee we could make a success of foil blocking, but because the Saroglia is also an excellent embossing and die cutting machine, we had a fall-back position and knew it would add value in those areas. Because it uses a heated process, there are advantages over our other embossing and die cutting machines. You can emboss in greater detail, for instance, Braille - and also die cut plastics.”

Mr Woods also has praise for TCS, who supplied the machine. “TCS are a great company to deal with on the service side,” he says. “We haven’t had any major problems but if we have a technical question we can always reach an engineer on the phone straight away. We wouldn’t hesitate to buy from them again.”

Fine Cut Finishers was formed in 1990 and has been in its current 6,000sq ft premises in Watford, Hertfordshire since 1998. According to Jason Woods the company’s success is built on quality and reliability. “People come to us when they want a job done properly, and the trick is to never let those standards slip.”