Barnsley based, print finishing machine manufacturer Rollem and their sister company TopDeck Print have welcomed the Master and Mistress Cutler James and Jo Tear to visit both manufacturing facilities.
The Master and Mistress Cutler started with a tour of the Rollem factory at Tankersley with managing director, Stuart Murphy and general manager, Andy Longston showing them each stage of the manufacturing process – design, machining, fabrication, painting or refurbishing of existing machines. Stuart and Andy also explained how the print finishing process works taking a single sheet of playing cards, photo books or business cards to a cut, collated, punched, wrapped finished product in a single pass. Some of the issues discussed during the tour included the effects of Brexit on import and export and the challenges currently being seen in the supply chain for components, and the skills shortage of experienced engineers which are affecting many businesses in the region and across the country.
Rollem, has seen record growth in the last 2 years with the order book now running till quarter 2, 2023. 90% of Rollem’s business is for export with current orders from world-leading names in playing and gaming cards in Italy and the USA.
The tour moved onto the new TopDeck Print facility on the newly built Everill Gate Business Park at Wombwell, where the team presented the Master and Mistress Cutler with The Company of Cutlers of Hallamshire branded playing cards, and they also got to see them being printed and going through each of the stages of the print finishing process.
TopDeck Print, who moved into 2 new units in Wombwell in November 2021 is a newly established business set up to answer demand for high quality, accurate print and finishing of playing and gaming cards a sector Rollem have been supplying with their finishing machines for over 90 years.
Since the end of 2020, TopDeck have already provided a quarter of a billion decks of playing cards including decks for an American film producer for use in a casino scene, an iconic British luxury brand and ‘Unspoken’ a playing card experience designed by Sheffield based, Hannah Duraid.
Master Cutler James Tear is the managing director of Thessco Solpro Group which is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of Silver Brazing Alloys, Metal Joining Products and Industrial Silver Alloys. Their head office and production site is located in Sheffield, UK with sales offices and warehousing in Paris to serve our European customers.
