Bob Milford
Bob Milford and his son Andrew have set up postal supplies wholesaler MML Trading.
Milford, who is the former Managing Director of Reclaim-it, which was acquired by Clover in 2011, has worked alongside his son to set up the wholesaler, which offers “virtually a full range of cartridges” for franking machines, including those from Neopost, Pitney Bowes and Francotyp Postalia.
Milford stated that the company “is a small company operating in a niche sector of the cartridge supply industry”, and added that “our aim is to supply specialist distributors from across the UK with top quality cartridges at great prices. We offer a highly personal service from standard plain label products to private label and branded products for qualifying customers. We also offer a plain label direct delivery service, meaning that we can send items directly to our clients’ customers with their own despatch notes”.
He noted that quality is important to the company: “There are some products, especially in the inkjet sector, that cannot be remanufactured as they are primarily ink tanks. In this area it is important that if you are going to supply compatible products, then they must be manufactured to the same high standards that the originals are. Our ink tank products have a proven track record of performance over many years all round the world in all the major machine types.”
The company’s range also contains “hybrid” cartridges alongside remanufactured ones, and the “hybrid” models are “made differently”, with Milford noting that “these start off as single cartridges, which are cleaned, filled and tested individually to ensure that they meet the stringent requirements for franking machines.
“These individual cartridges are then placed into new housing with all new electronic circuits and programmed to match the needs of the machine. Unlike remanufactured cartridges, hybrids do not rely on empties, meaning that we can supply unrestricted quantities”.
The latest products (read more here) in the hybrid range – red and blue ink cartridges for Neopost’s IS-240 and IS-280 franking machines – led Milford to conclude he is “delighted to add these highly sought after products to our already extensive range. We feel that our hybrid cartridges provide the best alternative to OEM cartridges. Each one offers the print performance of an original cartridge with the price performance of a remanufactured cartridge”.