Being on the Isle of Man presents some challenges for Bridson & Horrox, but these have not held back the forward-thinking business

Bridson & Horrox has a somewhat unique position in British print, being the largest printer on the Isle of Man and therefore rather detached from the rest of the industry. This has not prevented it staying abreast of the latest developments in many areas and ahead of them in others.

Its geographic location is a constant in the way that is not important for the majority of UK printers. It has been a help, as the status of the Isle of Man as a financial centre and for years the hub for the international offshore insurance industry provided a steady demand for brochures and forms which were then sent around the globe. That has long since disappeared, though the island's financial community is a core customer base.

Today the location provides Bridson & Horrox with more challenges than advantages. This is especially clear when it comes to the environment. For many years all waste from the Isle of Man would be flushed via the drains to long pipes which led to the Irish Sea where the currents would do the rest. But five years ago, the island's government built a water treatment plant and liquid waste is now very carefully assessed to see what can be sent down the drain. The spent chemicals that a printer generates do not qualify and must be stored in Intermediate Bulk Containers for shipping to the UK mainland, together with the requisite export and import licences, for processing. The printer's location means too that an emergency call out is not measured in minutes or hours, but in days. Bridson & Horrox consequently has two of every piece of key equipment to provide the cast iron guarantee that should something break down, production can continue. "We have always needed to  have two presses because we are on an island," says managing director Darren Horrox. "But when we came to replace our six- colour SM 74 and five-colour CD74, we had to consider how to reduce costs without damaging the business, In truth we had run with two presses longer than we should have."

Horrox was also looking for more than just a more efficient press. He explains: "As an organisation we try to fill our sales  people with lots of things that aren't related to price. It means that our local competition can only fight on price, while we can offer proven quality, a range of ISO standards, and ISO 14001 we saw as another way to differentiate ourselves."

Waste is carefully segregated, lighting is controlled through motion sensors and space heating is being considered on the road to certification, but it is the press that is making the most impact. The specification included on press colour controls, fast make-ready, JDF compatibility and the ability to run without IPA, not just for the ISO 14001 certificate, but also because this would save having to store spent chemistry in IBCs. The research and negotiations led to Bridson & Horrox switching from Heidelberg to buying a ROLAND 500 which was installed 18 months ago.

Today it sits in the centre of a press room where an ethos of cleanliness means that the floor is painted every six months. Horrox considers the working environment to be as important a tool as the efforts towards gaining ISO14001. "Our biggest selling point is that when people come in and see that the place is not dirty or untidy. If the place is clean you will produce clean work."

And the attitude extends through the business. "We realise that our drivers are the front door to our business," he adds. Horrox has negotiated a four year warranty on the press with monthly service visits from the mainland. In return, the press operators would stick to the maintenance regime locked into the press control system. This lists all lubrication and adjustment tasks that need to be carried out and can link to manroland headquarters for deeper diagnostic analysis. The risk has paid off. In those 18 months, Horrox reckons the press has been out of production for fewer than three days. "The reliability question was a key factor," he admits.

The press operators received training in Germany and then at the plant. Once the Heidelbergs had been removed, the transition was smooth. Plates were the same and the same vegetable oil inks were used. Even the move to IPA-free printing was not difficult as the crews had no experience of the press with the harmful fount additive to make a comparison.

The ROLAND 500 has ceramic pan rollers on the dampening side and from the outset was fitted with suitable rollers covered in a compound suited to non-IPA operation. Bridson & Horrox has had no problem with water variability, one of the benefits of its island location, so has had no need for pre-treatment. However, keeping the fount clean is of crucial importance. This is managed via a filtration unit, which keeps water on press much longer than with IPA. Previously the company had been using 1,000 litres of IPA a year, so there has been an immediate saving from its elimination, both in cost and reduced waste. Where the fount used to be drained and replaced every week, the system on the ROLAND 500 only needs replacing every 12-16 weeks. As water usage becomes a greater concern, how much water a printer uses is going to move under the spotlight.

Another ROLAND 500 user has saved 2,800 litres of water in the course of the year. A further environmental benefit has been its fast start up which typically means that only 20-30 sheets of paper are used. Make ready times are further enhanced by simultaneous set up on all the inking units, rather than doing this in sequence. "For short runs that's a big advantage," Horrox says. This feature helps too when making on the run adjustments for colour. With a reduction in capacity to the single manroland B2 press, the faster make ready has narrowed the capacity gap. Likewise the average running speed is coming out at 12,000cph, up from 8-9,000cph on the old CD. "We are getting an extra 3-4 jobs on press a day," he adds.

Another huge tick for Bridson & Horrox has been blanket cleaning system on the R500. manroland has retained a brush system rather than move to an impregnated cloth. While the cloth is said to use less cleaning solvent, it is a consumable item that needs to bought, stored, fitted and then disposed of carefully. With any waste a problem for the Isle of Man printer, a cloth system would have been another. Bridson & Horrox has dealt with this via a solvent wash to match the vegetable oil inks it uses and a Uni-ram solvent recovery system. This is a unit designed by a Canadian company, which was recommended by manroland GB. The literature claims a 95% recovery rate for the cleaning solvent, and the company is attaining 90% in action. The dirt laden fluid is left in the device for 24 hours where it is heated to help separate out the solvent from the inky and dirty residue. Once cooled down, the solvent can be reused. The remainder is waste and has to be kept for onward transport for further treatment. The recovered solvent is returned to the press. "Blanket cleaning was a big issue for us," says Horrox. "Using cloths would have meant even more waste to ship to the UK. "Moving to this press was a big decision, but it has proved a good one. Consumable costs are down because we only have one machine, not two and we are operating in a better way."

The other side of the coin is how the company's efforts have been received by its customer base. To date there has been little local pressure to work with only ISO 14001 recognised suppliers, though the Isle of Man government does specify Evolve for its stationery. But there are the international companies with CSR policies specifying environmental standards. The company also works for customers on the UK mainland who are more demanding than island businesses. "We are not being asked for it, but it is going to become a sales advantage," he reckons. "We are not the cheapest printer, but we are the company you come to if you want your work done properly.  At present the island government is not demanding ISO 14001, but it does tend to look to the UK for best practice principles.  The work will come to us, if we are patient."

The next step for Bridson & Horrox is to achieve recognition that the company can print to the  ISO 12647-2 standard, using the colour controls on the new press. Then comes replacement of its two Agfa Palladios with a chemistry free platemaking system, "which will further reduce waste and costs". It will ensure a stronger future for a long established island business. The Isle of Man may be considered behind the times in some ways, but Bridson & Horrox demonstrates that in print at least, it is very much part of the 21st century.