Screen has installed the world’s first Truepress Jet W1632UV flatbed inkjet printer at UK-based large format POS specialist Best Digital. Best saw and ordered the Truepress Jet W1632UV at drupa in a £500,000 (€620,000) two-machine deal that also included a Screen Truepress Jet 2500UV hybrid wide-format printer. The investment is expected to treble capacity and double turnover to £3 million (€3.7 million) by 2014 as the company expands into new markets with new added-value products.
Despite testing economic conditions, Best has enjoyed similar rapid growth since it was founded in 2008 by Geoff Rawlings and Danny Colegate. Sales for 2012 are on target for €1.5 million, generated by POS, exhibition and display graphics for leading brands. The company employs 12 staff at 10,000 square foot premises in Welwyn Garden City.
Managing director, Geoff Rawlings describes Best’s market position as “in the niche between small digital companies with ‘print and mount’ facilities and the major POS suppliers.” Under the strapline ‘Large format, direct to almost everything’, Best focuses on delivering high-quality work on time and at a competitive price, backed up by a total support package from concept and design through to production and installation.
“It’s been a very successful formula so far,” says Geoff Rawlings, “but competition is increasingly fierce and customers are more and more demanding. To grow the business we need to maintain margins, and to do this we need to develop added-value products that set us apart from the competition. The new Screen machines are vital to this strategy—armed with them we can attack markets like retail with products such as quality double-sided window graphics.”
Best operates a variety of digital printers, including solvent- and dye-based machines. The Truepress Jet W1632UV and Truepress Jet 2500 have replaced two Zund Combi UV units, explains Rawlings. “The quality of the work coming off the Combis was fine, but we needed to produce it faster, so we started looking to increase our firepower.” But finding the combination of speed and quality Best demands proved elusive: “The machines on the market were either beyond our budget or fell short on speed or quality - until we saw the Truepress Jet W1632UV, that is.”
The Truepress Jet W1632UV prints at 94 square metres top speed per hour on media up to 1,600 mm x 3,200 mm with a maximum thickness of 48 mm. Its 12-picolitre micro-droplet printheads render crisp text, fine definition and smooth vignettes, while a maximum apparent resolution of 1,200 dpi ensures photographic quality on printed images. The machine features Screen's proprietary Truepress inks and comes with six colours (CMYKLcLm) as standard. Says Geoff Rawlings: “The Truepress Jet W1632UV is a true flatbed, and the quality it produces at speed is amazing.”
He adds that to target larger jobs and provide back-up, Best was seeking a two-machine investment, and the Truepress Jet 2500UV proved the perfect partner for the Truepress Jet W1632UV. “The combination gives us enormous versatility as well as a trebling in capacity compared to the Zund Combis. The Truepress Jet 2500UV is also fast and produces high quality work, has the unique ability to print seven layers and features a roll-to-roll option. Because both machines use the same inks, so we can keep colour consistent when we split jobs between the two.
“These machines take us into the next generation of large-format digital printing. Without sacrificing valuable floorspace, we can produce more print, in more sophisticated formats and longer runs.”
Says Kees Mulder, president of Screen Europe, adds, “We’re delighted to welcome Best Digital as a new Screen customer, and we couldn’t ask for a better home for the world’s first Truepress Jet W1632UV. What Best is doing - picking the best of technology to go after new markets - is a great example to forward-looking digital printers everywhere. We look forward to helping them grow and prosper in the future.”
[photo shows Geoff Rawlings (L) and Screen's vice president of sales, Bui Burke (R)]
