2015 was the year Absolute established itself as the premier supplier of Carbon Fiber chambers to the industry – an achievement due to considerable investment in several aspects of the business.
Bill Gempp joined us mid-year as VP Sales the Americas and his vast experience in the industry combined with his professional approach made him the perfect candidate for the position. His effect was immediate: Our customers and agents now have a senior ‘go to’ person in North America who is 100% dedicated to their needs, assisting them in all aspects of both their decision-making process and in coordinating effective after sales.
We also recruited two additional Service Engineers to work under Steve Erickson, our North American Service Manager. This will increase our ability to react quickly to customer requests and ensure that our installations run smoothly.
At HQ, our previous investment in 5 axis machining capacity allowed us to massively increase manufacturing performance whilst improving the consistency and accuracy of the component produced. Additions to the Engineering Design Team allow us to increase volumes yet still dedicate resources to New Product Development and specialist products for OEM’s. In 2015, we developed a further two chamber designs specifically to OEM requirements, providing a bespoke carbon fiber product that is unique to them but has all the DNA of Absolute. This gives them a rapid development process and a guaranteed outcome that is perfectly designed to complement their specific equipment.
Absolute’s customer base continues to grow and this year has seen a significant increase in customers who are not only using us to upgrade their existing equipment but are increasingly specifying us on new equipment. Several successful Independents and large integrated groups are standardizing on Absolute as their ink system of choice across the board. Of course, Absolute is ideally suited to this, as our Design Team utilise the most advanced 3D design packages, so coordination with other Design Teams globally is very straightforward. Our range of 14 standard chamber and UniBlade designs means that, regardless of width (we provide blades up to 251”), we have a perfect profile for your specific anilox.
InkSave has also had a great year with continued installations worldwide. Customers see real tangible benefits in upgrading an existing machine with a wash-up and ink recovery system, saving 1000’s of pints of ink and 1000’s of gallons of water that would otherwise be wasted! Installations in areas where water is a valuable resource have also increased.
During 2016, we will continue to work hard with early adopters in the sector to produce measurable performance improvements over traditional equipment, with a goal of making all of our products the industry standard. If you have a requirement for a new inking system application or a new idea that you want to develop, call us – we would be delighted to help!
