September 2010 - Capital plant investment - Morgana Digifold

The latest addition to the HBPG portfolio is the Morgana DigiFold. This machine is a totally new technology to finish even the most sensitive of materials. The DigiFold is aimed at the "print-on-demand" market and handles output from digital colour printing systems and conventional litho.

It is fully automated, compact and easy to use - it is suction-fed and the only automated folder using a creasing rule and matrix with the ability to crease material prior to folding. Unlike scoring, which breaks the surface of the material, the creasing rule and matrix mechanism prevents cracking during the folding process.

The creasing element of the system - the auto-creaser - is entirely new and uses a number of highly innovative operating systems to ensure that finished documents are creased and folded without any cracking. The picture below shows the difference in product quality when using the digifold - the example on the right is creased & folded on the Digifold - notice the lack of cracking.

The DigiFold can be set to operate in three modes:

• For standard folding configurations it works in ‘set to fold’ mode – the system automatically sets the creasing and folding position.
• In 'set to' mode, the operator sets the creasing and folding positions - this is particularly useful where extra creases or difficult configurations are required.
• The third mode enables the machine to be used as an automated creasing machine from which the creased work is delivered flat.

The Digifold runs at 1,300 sheets per hour.

August 2010 - Business in the Community Environmental Index 2010

Horner Brothers recently submitted our 3rd entry to the 2010 environmental index & achieved an index score of 93.2%. This was another improvement on our 2 previous submissions & we also achieved "Gold" band status for the 2nd year running.

The Yorkshire and Humber environment index benchmarks companies and other organisations within the region against their peers, based on their environmental management and performance in key impact areas.

Entering the index provides us with a framework in which we can improve our management systems & also allows us to:

• Analyse gaps
• Measure progress
• Drive improvement
• Raise awareness of the environment as a strategic, competitive issue at board level
• Assist in communicating our environment performance to stakeholders and customers alike

July 2010 - Horner Brothers pass test with flying colours for Centrica

We are delighted to receive feedback that reiterates our first class service guarantee. Employees at energy giant Centrica, who have worked with us for eight years now, were recently asked to complete a satisfaction survey. Results showed a strong belief that we provide high quality service with 95% of respondents pleased with the business we offer and our continuous guidance from order through to dispatching.

Centrica, also known as British Gas, has a vast usage of our products and services with orders for personalised stationery, operational forms and documents as well as utilising our artwork studio, warehousing facilities and web to print services. Therefore to receive such high praise from them has been a real positive here at Horner Brothers and we thank them for their ongoing support.

The survey has also been useful in enabling us to gain general feedback we couldn’t have otherwise obtained; and most importantly to us highlighting areas that we can now endeavour to improve.

A consistent message in the additional comments was that of prompt service: "Great service provided with my recent involvement, prompt service, always helpful and quick to respond to urgent demands. Very satisfied customer."

June 2010 - Capital plant investment improves efficiency

Aldwarke Aislemaster - A recent review of our warehouse Fork Lift Truck operations identified the potential for improved operational capabilities, reduced maintenance costs & environmental impacts.

Two different types of fork lift truck were currently in use, a dedicated narrow aisle truck for indoor operations & a counterbalance truck for outdoor loading operations. Neither fork lift truck could carry out the other's work & the narrow aisle trucks were no longer cost effective due to high maintenance costs associated with their age.

The Aislemaster VNA (very narrow aisle) flexi-truck was identified as a suitable alternative thanks to its unique articulated design & compact build. This enables it to perform both the indoor & outdoor warehouse operations with ease; effectively we were getting 2 for the price of one.

A robust design provides ample operator protection, along with excellent comfort levels & operational visibility. Training requirements were minimal with existing warehouse staff truck licence holders only requiring a 1 day familiarisation course, which was given on site by the manufacturers.

Low maintenance costs are anticipated thanks to the hydrostatic drive & brushless DC motor technology. New battery technology & improved, simplified maintenance features keep the Aislemaster user friendly for our warehouse staff. Replacing two older trucks with one new also reduces environmental impacts & energy costs as battery charging requirements are reduced.

May 2010 - Horner Brothers' Partnership with Netstationers goes from strength to strength

Only 12 months since the relationship with Netstationers commenced Horners have 2 new contract wins under their belt on the back of a major contract won late in 2009.

Recently the contract was awarded to provide the complete print solution to one of the world’s largest consultancy, engineering and project management providers AMEC, valued at £500k pa. The contract is being delivered in partnership between Horner Brothers and Netstationers.

Following a tender process Horners have now been awarded the print contract to supply Payzone, which is a nationwide organisation that enables the payment of a multitude of bills from mobile top up to utility bill payments through a network of 30,000 retailers. The work is predominantly point of sale but includes operational and marketing print as well.

The second of the new contract wins is to provide the retail group, Morleys, with operational print. Morleys Stores Group began life in the late 1800's currently operates eight department stores in the Greater London area. In both cases the contracts will require the implementation of the Horners bespoke online ordering system which, once the norm for large multinational organisations, is increasingly becoming a standard requirement regardless of the business scale.

Due to the fact that Horners online system has been fully developed in house and has been in operational use for over 10 years it works well, can be modified to suit most customer needs, is scalable, and for larger contracts is offered free of charge.

April 2010 - SSL International Plc has recently appointed Horners as their preferred supplier

SSL International Plc has recently appointed Horner Brothers Print Group as their preferred supplier for all corporate stationery and operational forms. The supply contract covers all 5 operating sites within the UK.

SSL International Plc is a consumer products company with the leading global brands Durex and Scholl as well as a diverse portfolio of 27 locally owned over-the-counter brands in the UK, such as Cuprofen, Diocalm, Full Marks, Meltus, Ralgex and Resolve.

In April we will go live with a bespoke e-commerce website which will allow users from any SSL location to access their product catalogue. Using this secure facility users can create personalised items such as business cards, view live stock levels for items held in our warehouse and request call-off or place orders for a wide range of print-on-demand items.

March 2010 - Major Order from Financial Sector Blue Chip

During March 2010 we were requested by one of our blue chip customers within the financial sector to help co-ordinate the re-brand of two areas within their business.

Our studio was initially involved working closely with the client to determine the requirements for the updated stationery and once approved, we updated all working templates and job cards within 24 hours.

Due to the numbers of personalisations involved we were able to utilise our IT team to allow us to import the data via programmes we have developed in house, supported with our data input personnel for manual orders. The number of personalisations involved so far during March 2010 is 5,179.

This breaks down further to:

• No of Letterheads - 892,000 A4's (over 333 personalisations)
• No of Comp Slips - 1,027,000 1/3 A4's (over 604 personalisations)
• No of Business Cards - 738,400 (over 4,242 personalisations)

We are still receiving orders for the above project with personalisations during March to be in excess of 6,500. All of these orders have been despatched with the usual SLA with no adverse impact on other contracts SLA's. Some urgent orders of these rebranded business areas have had their stationery despatched within 24hrs of receipt of the order data.

For comparison we've shown below the total number of personalisations processed for this client on a normal monthly basis:

• March 2010 - No of Personalisations: 6,500+
• February 2010 - No of Personalisations: 2,459
• January 2010 - No of Personalisations: 2,835

We regularly process around 15,000 personalisations a month across 50+ contracts and are resourced to handle whatever your business needs are, both one off projects such as this, or ongoing month in month out demands. Horner Brothers are proud to be considered 'best in class' within the area of personalised stationery.

February 2010 - Euro 4 Compliant Delivery Vehicle for Horners

CO2 emissions from trucks and vans produce 40% of road transport CO2 in the UK, although they represent just 10% of vehicles. At Horner Brothers we are committed to reducing our environmental impact which is why our new van is the 'best we could get' to meet our needs and have a positive environmental impact at the same time.

The EU are constantly setting tougher emission standards for vehicle engines & introducing stricter limits on pollutant emissions from light road vehicles, particularly for emissions of nitrogen particulates and oxides.

Euro standards are the air quality pollutant emission standards that all new vehicles have to reach before they can be sold in Europe.

Pictured accepting the keys to Horner Brothers new Mercedes 311CDi delivery van is procurement manager Tony Askew.

The van is fully compliant to Euro 4 emissions standards & kitted out with a Joloda pallet loading system to improve loading operations & reduce manual handling requirements, making it better for our employees as well as the environment.

The 311 satisfied Horner's tender requirements as it delivers Euro 4 emissions compliance, improved fuel economy & reduced vehicle interior noise levels. Upgrading to Euro 4 from Euro 3 gives a reduction of 30% for Nitrogen Oxide, Nitrogen Dioxide, Hydrocarbons & Carbon Monoxide, and in addition, a much higher reduction of 80% for Particulate Matter.

January 2010 - Horners continue their commitment to staff training

The Board of Directors at Horners are totally committed to the training and development of all staff. They prioritise the training needs and have again set an annual budget of £50K for external training. Although not every member of staff undertakes external training, it equates to a spend of £340 per person.

Where possible they take advantage of any government funding that is available throughout South Yorkshire for Training and Development.

Horners take a structured approach to training that highlights skills gaps, Personal Development Reviews for all staff are undertaken where the focus is on setting objectives and training and development needs.

Horners have been in partnership with the BPIF since 2003 and offer staff the opportunity to study for an NVQ or a Modern Apprenticeship in Machine Printing, Desk Top Publishing, Print Finishing and Print Administration and more recently Customer Service.

They also offer Warehouse staff the opportunity to gain an NVQ in Warehousing and Distribution through a local training provider.

Horners have had discussions with Business Impact UK regarding another training initiative to offer an NVQ in Business Improvement Techniques using a structured approach to improve continuously. An improvement team has been put together, from a cross section of staff at all levels within the organisation and with different levels of experience. They are being trained in-house and given the tools and techniques on measuring and collecting data, KPI's, 5S's and 7 wastes and have started to undertake three business improvement projects. If this is a success the programme will be rolled out across the company.

How does Horners quantify the benefits of their training development? Some of the key performance indicators used are:

• Reduced waste such as skips to landfill
• Energy usage
• Quality
• Operator efficiency

Horners carry out bi-annual attitude surveys and have received excellent feedback from Individuals who left school with no qualifications and are really proud of their achievements which in turn improves staff morale. At the Personal Development Reviews, individuals discuss what training they require and they have the confidence to ask about training opportunities and also put forward suggestions through our 'Bright Ideas' Suggestion Scheme.

Finally Horners have a Centre of Excellence Board and all the certificates staff have achieved are on show within the factory. As at today 47 members of staff have achieved or are currently studying for a formal qualification.

December 2009 - BPIF Health & Safety Healthcheck Report

Horner Brothers excels in BPIF Health and Safety Healthcheck

The British Printing Industries Federation (BPIF) is the principal business support organisation representing the UK print industry. It offers numerous practical solutions for all areas of a print organisation, such as Health & Safety, Environmental and Quality issues. This is all delivered by individuals and teams of highly skilled, experienced print industry specialists.

In 2006 Horners invited the BPIF to carry out an external Health & safety Healthcheck report with the aim of benchmarking our Health and safety management systems against current UK health and safety legislation and good practice within the print industry. They achieved a score of 92% in the healthcheck report, an outstanding first attempt.

As with most audits of this kind feedback was provided, which highlighted several opportunities for improvement. This resulted in additional measures being implemented in several areas, Transport & Traffic Routes, Chemical use, Noise at Work, Working at Height, Control of machinery & associated hazards, Training, and Manual Handling.

Horners invited the BPIF back to carry out another Healthcheck safety report in October 2009. A thorough site visit together with a comprehensive survey of our H&S systems was carried out by the BPIFs leading HSE specialist. This resulted in a score of 96%, a hard fought for improvement of 4% on the last healthcheck. This was an excellent achievement which amply demonstrates the commitment in providing employees & visitors alike with a safe and healthy working environment.

November 2009 - BT extends relationship with Horner Brothers past the 20 year mark

BT have been a customer of Horner Brothers Print Group since 1989 and have now confirmed an extension to the contract for a further two years, which will take the relationship past the 20 year mark.

Horner Brothers, the Rotherham based print solutions provider, supply BT with full stock management services, personalised stationery, print on demand and an in house developed fully interactive website through which products are ordered. BT's products cross 8 different brands so brand compliance is extremely important and is controlled and monitored by Horners to the stringent guidelines set by BT. Personalised products are ordered and proofed by BT via Horner Brothers custom built website. Horners produce an average of 730 personalised products every month for BT.

BT's Tony Aitken said "BT sets great store by having reliable, innovative suppliers. Horner Brothers has always been a company that is true to its word. The service over the years has been fantastic, they have always delivered what they say they are going to deliver and are a first class supplier to BT."

Judith Fox, Managing Director at Horner Brothers said "We are delighted that BT has taken the decision to extend the contract and we will be working closely with them to ensure that further opportunities for cost reduction and service enhancement are delivered."

October 2009 - iGen for Horner Brothers

South Yorkshire based print and print management company, Horner Brothers Print Group, has made its first major capital investment since the management buy out last year.

A Xerox iGen3 digital press has been installed to sit alongside the 21 litho presses already in situ at the Rotherham based firm. Horner Brothers decided on the Xerox press after 18 months of tests and comparisons with other digital providers. “Our customer base is dominated by blue chip names for whom we manage to very stringent brand requirements. It was essential that the selected digital press could run alongside our existing litho presses and deliver the same levels of quality.’ Initially some work will be converted from litho to digital and the new iGen will be particularly suited to sit behind the company’s in house web ordering platform delivering short run personalised products.

Initial customer feedback has been positive and BT, who were Horners first Blue Chip customer some 18 years ago, became the first major client to sign off the transfer of business cards being printed litho to digital. Tony Aitken of BT visited the site to see the new kit first hand and witnessed the slick process by keying in his order, watching it being printed and then cut and boxed all within an hour.

Managing Director, Judith Fox said “the conversion of business cards to digital makes commercial sense for us and our customers, however this investment will do much more than business cards and enable us to broaden the range of products produced in house. There are a number of exciting opportunities which are being pursued using the iGen as part of the solution.

September 2008

September 2009 - Horner Brothers Celebrates 27 Years with Staff Fun Day

Following a successful customer Open Day, and continuing the year of celebrations to mark the 27th anniversary of the business, Horner Brothers held a 'Crystal Maze' fun day for staff.

Members of staff were given the afternoon off work to unwind and take part in a variety of activities. Teams were mixed by department which meant that work colleagues had the opportunity to interact with staff from around the company. At the end of the afternoon winners were declared and medals awarded to the jubilant team. Celebrations continued well into the evening with food, music and fireworks.

Managing Director Judith Fox said "Overall feedback from staff was that the day was a huge success. Everyone got into the competitive spirit and had a lot of fun."

As part of the day Horner Brothers also organised a raffle prize draw, and all proceeds were donated to the local Rotherham Hospice. Staff were successful in raising a total of £1,250, which will be used to directly benefit patients and their families.