Love Lumi Ltd sees laser-focused growth with Trotec Laser.
Love Lumi Ltd drive their business forwards with Trotec Laser technology. Lasers offer improved processing over the previous laser, allowing for more products than possible by handcrafting at higher volumes. Ceramic tubes offer increased processing capabilities vs glass tube laser.
Production of gifts and personalised products.
Lincolnshire, UK
Speedy 300 x 3 and U300 x 1
A passion for creativity drives business success.
With a passion and dedication for creating gifts that both celebrate and resonate with the recipients, Love Lumi Ltd supplies private individuals and wholesalers alike from its base in Lincolnshire. The foundations of the company were laid in 2006 when co-founder Frances Roxburgh was designing wedding stationery while studying at university, before working as a sole trader for 2 years and eventually starting her business, Dreams to Reality, in April 2011. In 2022, the company rebranded to Love Lumi to reflect its new business direction.
Initially a family-based business, Love Lumi has now expanded to include a team of staff who, alongside Frances and her husband Oliver, process a wide range of materials to create a diverse range of products, including gifts for Christmas, baby showers, weddings, Valentine’s Day and more.
Growing the business with laser technology.
Throughout her days as a sole trader and even the early years of Dreams to Reality, Frances handcrafted her paper-based products such as invitations, order of service booklets and place cards which were all hand embellished with ribbons and other accessories.
Today, Love Lumi offers a diverse range of products, catering to various markets and utilising many materials, including woods, acrylics, faux leather, glass and steel. To manage the workload which came from expanding the product portfolio, Frances and Olly began investing in printers and other technologies, and in the busy pre-Christmas rush of 2019, they purchased their first laser cutter.
This laser proved an efficient first step for fueling business growth. However as the demand for lasered products increased the team found that the processing speed was no longer sufficient. In May 2020, with the UK in lockdown, Frances and Oliver began researching alternative laser suppliers. The personalised gift market was flourishing during the pandemic and with demand increasing, the duo moved fast to find a new laser machine, discovering Trotec Laser during their research.
Unable to attend the Loughborough showroom due to Covid restrictions, Frances and Oliver had an online demonstration with their Trotec area manager who gave them a demonstration of the capabilities of the Speedy series laser cutters, particularly the Speedy 300. Frances and Oliver were particularly impressed with the results that the Speedy was able to achieve with one of their files, and decided to invest in their first Speedy 300.
Speedy growth with Trotec lasers.
In the 18 months following the installation of the first Speedy 300, Love Lumi invested in three further laser systems from Trotec. Alongside two additional Speedy 300s to increase production capacity, the team also bought a U300 laser marker, the perfect tool for high-speed laser marking of bespoke items.
With the ceramic laser sources of the Speedy systems, the lasers not only have a longer service life compared to the previous glass tube laser, but the team at Love Lumi have also been able to achieve more detailed engraving results than previously possible. The speed of the laser systems allows the team to meet large quantity orders quickly and Love Lumi can now offer faster delivery times. The efficient material database allows staff to easily store and reuse established settings for future jobs.
The addition of a rotary attachment increases the versatility of the laser and makes engraving smaller rotary jobs fast and easy, thus maintaining efficiency and profitability. With Trotec’s Vision Print and Cut camera system, Love Lumi can now pre-print materials with their UV printer and then transfer them to the Speedy laser cutter where the camera system will accurately read registration marks and then cut the material with pinpoint accuracy.
Love Lumi has been quick to praise the support received from Trotec. Their area sales manager has been highlighted for not only helping them find the right machines as well as the ongoing support including training for new materials. Trotec’s service team have also been highlighted for praise, with all queries responded to within 24 hours and in the event of any issues the machines are up and running after a visit from the engineer.
Looking to the future, Love Lumi are keen to grow the commercial side of the business, with the investment in laser technology allowing them to efficiently meet large capacity orders with minimal effort.
Our Trotec fleet very quickly grew from 1 machine to 4 within 18 months allowing us to meet customer deadlines with quick delivery promises. The speed and accuracy allows us to meet large capacity orders for commercial customers, a side of the business we hope to grow over the next 12 months.