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For devotees of Kevin McCloud’s Grand Designs programme, a visit to Reflex Printed Plastics in Bells Yew Green, near Tunbridge Wells in Kent is a sensory treat. Purpose-built for the company in 2002, the large steel and glass construction sits within a blanket of green fields and the car park nestles in that brand of silence only achievable when urbanisation is some distance away.

Thirty years of forward thinking attitude have paid off for Reflex Printed Plastics. Backed up by consistent investment, the progress has been regular and consistent. In 2002, the office and factory were built;
in 2003 Reflex purchased Young-Shin fully automated platen, and the following year, invested in CTP. A second litho press was installed in 2005 and Reflex expects to install a digital press and laminating plant this year.

In 2006, turnover grew by 20% and is projected to grow by 10% in 2007, helped by the August 2006 installation of a new Komori six-colour digital press with anilox coater. Total investment from 2003 through to 2006 was £1.5m, with the latter being a particularly busy year for the company as it purchased Human Eyes lenticular software.

Humble origins
Current chairman Mark Brown started the business humbly enough screen printing T-shirts 30 years ago and managing director Antony Jones wants to continue to grow it in a “concentrated and controlled fashion” continuing to offer versatility and the speciality service of printing on plastics. He confirms that Jones spent two years developing the optimum process using highly accurate lenses and did not compromise on costs.

Along with its products, sales director Paul Farrow says the company is not limited to a two dimensional way of thinking. From among its selection of wobblers, window signs, floor decals, mouse mats, packaging and lenticular signs, the mainstay of the company’s products is promotional and point-of-sale material.

Buyers are constantly looking for new and innovative head-turning products says Farrow. “Clients have always wanted something a little different and to be the first but have not always had the budget to realise this.” Farrow says that Reflex has now made lenticular easily available

for customers: “We have got the cost of lenticular down to affordable levels and can now offer top quality lenticular productions.”

Wallpaper* winner
It is a magazine cover featuring a model in a ‘mechanical dress’ described by Farrow as “foot stoppingly good with exceptional definition” that has really caught the market’s eye. Reflex produced 30,000 copies of the lenticular covermount for the March issue of Wallpaper*. “This cover has alerted the market to what can be done and that there is sufficient ability in the UK to drive the market,” says Farrow, who had been speaking to magazine publisher IPC for a number of years prior to picking up the job. “Originally, it was considered as an insert, but it was far more striking as a covermount so we went ahead.”

The cover was produced using three images, which Reflex had to manipulate because the model’s head had moved during the shot. Reflex produced a series of proofs over a week and then hand mounted
the final covers by hand using jigs in five days.

Having seen Wallpaper*’s cover, you can appreciate the fact that Reflex has taken lenticular to a new level of clarity and professionalism. Farrow wants to go into different markets in a “controlled fashion” and would like to see lenticular accounting for 25% of the overall budget within two years.

The push for lenticular is working well with interest coming in from overseas, especially the Benelux
area, even though Farrow says the company has not fully explored Europe yet. It will be an interesting story to follow.