Print Supplies future trends by Mayday Graphic Products

In the first of our new series of behind-the-scenes blogs about the printing industry, Solopress.com talks with print supplier Mayday Graphics about their company and future business predictions…

Introduction to Mayday Graphics
Hi, my Name is Jim Fox and I am the sales director of Mayday Graphics (www.mayday-graphics.co.uk) and have been with the company for 22 years. We are a consumable and capital equipment supplier to the litho and digital printing industry. Our company was established some 30 years ago in Suffolk to supply printers across Eastern Seaboard and the Home Counties with printing consumables. We decided right from the outset to supply a full range of high quality products and only to offer the best products from the top manufacturers. During those 30 years of trading we have changed our portfolio of products to meet the demands in our industry and this has included partnerships with Manufacturers of digital Machines to help our customers with short run high quality digital output. Mayday Graphics offer a complete range of prepress workflows to support the latest files that our customers have to work with backed up by high speed Computer to plate devices. Our latest diversity has seen our company move into the wide format market with equipment such as eco solvent digital roll fed machines and flatbed UV printing machines capable of printing onto many rigid Medias up to four inches thick. We also stock an extensive range of water based and eco solvent Medias to supply the digital wide format users. Our company has strived to support end users throughout their business by having our own product specialists for all of our products and this helps set us apart from much of our competition and in turn this helps us to provide a one stop shop as much as possible. We feel that this is important to customers and gives them comfort knowing that when an issue arises it’s only one call.

Solopress and Mayday
Mayday Graphics were introduced to Solopress some 10 years ago by Andy Smith, one of the directors. Andy contacted us when they were looking for their first computer to plate (CTP) machine to handle making plates for their first Speedmaster 74. That initial purchase from us was superseded less than 18 months later by a high end Kodak Magnus machine and Prinerge workflow that could support 40 plates per hour to keep up with the demand. Solopress were now getting high rankings on Google for online print orders and therefore the second Magnus was installed to keep the company in production at all times allowing 24 hour print without letting any customers down should any of their equipment fail. Our relationship with Solopress has grown into a trusted partnership as we supply more and more products into their company from the prepress, pressroom digital and now wide format. We work to keep the high volume of products delivered daily and advise on equipment and consumables to every department. 10 years on and the growth of Solopress has been considerable and the approach to the market has been professional and quite unique. Mayday have felt that the partnership has worked well for both company’s and that they can rely on us as a business to service and support them in every way possible. Now Solopress houses 5 Speedmasters, 2 iGens and numerous wide format machines. I can say with pride that every opportunity for Solopress means another for us as we carry on searching for new products to support them and every customer we deal with. The way they conduct their business is admirable it has to be said their motto should be its all about the customer and as a supplier to them for a long time now they live up to that in every way. On a final note it’s been a pleasure working with them. Thank you Solopress.