As the UK printing industry recovers from its pandemic induced downturn Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS) is experiencing a surge in demand from printers for its Technical Services.

The increased interest has led to the appointment of two new Technicians to the Tech Team – Andy Nelhams and Nick Dow.

IFS Managing Director Eric Keane, comments: “During the pandemic, despite the downturn, we have remained steady to the extent that we never had to downsize our team. We’ve stayed busy with installations and training work. Now we are seeing significant increase in demand from printers requiring additional print finishing operator training – in particular for Horizon or Tecnau print finishing solutions. As a result, we have hired two new experienced technicians. We will soon be taking on a further two technicians as part of our general expansion.”

Mr Keane expects investment from printers in automated print finishing solutions to hit a new high over the next year. He states: “There is a lot of pent-up demand right now, particularly for automation. We already have an advanced order book for Q4 that is equal to our best in previous years and we are gearing our Tech Team up to deliver and support these solutions. We are very excited to see more installations of the recently launched Horizon ‘ICE’ range of highly automated internet connected finishing solutions. Supporting their introduction is a series of advanced training sessions in with Horizon and Tecnau to ensure our Tech Team have all the latest knowledge.”

IFS continues to build on its almost 40-year exclusive partnership with Horizon, the world leading specialist manufacturer of technologically advanced print finishing solutions. Keane says: “We work very closely at all stages with Horizon, providing an after sales service that includes service and maintenance. We are able to uniquely provide Horizon approved technical advice on best practice, original approved spare parts and have exclusive access to provide free software upgrades where appropriate.”

Also proving popular is IFS’s free onsite one hour technical ‘health check’. Says Mr Keane: “By expanding our team we will have the capacity to provide more onsite advice. It’s all part of what we do, we want our customers to get the best use from their IFS supplied systems including Horizon, Tecnau Foliant, baumannperfecta and DigiBook.”