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Colour Proofing System Makes Great Savings For Royal Mint - 20/04/2008

The Leeds-based niche print and reprographic house, Print-Leeds has secured a two year repro contract with MiniMail and The Royal Mint.

The Royal Mint has awarded the two year direct mail contract (with a further one year option) to MiniMail Print Production, the independent print management division of direct response agency JDA, after a strenuous tendering process. Part of the agreement is that all repro work will be undertaken by Print-Leeds. MiniMail and Print-Leeds proved to be the best value for money of all the companies invited to participate.

MiniMail's production director, Les Peacock said "I am delighted we have won this joint venture and look forward to a long and prosperous association. Once again Print-Leeds has provided MiniMail with an exceptional service, meeting all the deadlines, with the quality demanded by The Royal Mint at the correct cost."

Print-Leeds has provided the colour proofing for The Royal Mint's printed direct mail publications for over a decade. Three years ago Print-Leeds were asked to provide a solution to improve the proofing process for The Royal Mint. The company took the unusual step of installing an Epson colour proofing machine into The Royal Mint's head quarters in Llantrisant in South Wales. This machine, which is similar to one housed at Print-Leeds, is linked to the company via a virtual private network (VPN).

This unique system has many advantages for The Royal Mint. It speeds up the approval process, ensures the integrity of the colour is controlled by the experts at Print-Leeds which, in turn, ensures an accurate colour proof. This is of great benefit to the time critical nature of the work.

The system is quite simple – the artwork arrives from the design agency, is processed in-house at Print-Leeds and the file is sent via the VPN to the colour proofing system at The Royal Mint where the proof is printed out for approval.

Rod Fisher, managing director of Print-Leeds said: "This system ensures the colour proofs arrive with the client quickly and that they remain accurate during the transfer. We maintain the machine and train the operators – all the client has to do is house it. It is a perfect solution and there is no reason why we couldn't do this for other clients who regularly produce time critical work."