The 13-staff Xerox house took delivery of the new device on 12 December, replacing an ageing Xerox 1000 digital press at the firm’s 370sqm facility. It was supplied by Xerox reseller First Copy.
Half of the site is dedicated to Kellmatt’s digital work, explained managing director Matt Weir, with three production presses including the Iridesse, a Xerox iGen 4 and a Nuvera.
“This is just a natural progression for us to update with the latest technology,” he said.
“We understand Xerox technology, we’ve been with them for a long time. We want to stay on top of developments so we aren’t falling behind and this machine has the appeal of the additional spot colours.
“We do a lot of invitations and brochures and the ability to add this to our repertoire means we can just keep more jobs in-house and in our control. That was the clincher for us.”
The device was fully up and running within days of its arrival with the team spending time running samples with different materials, weights and finishes to see what it is capable of.
Launched by Xerox in June 2018, the Iridesse uses the Fiery RIP and prints 120 A4 pages per minute on all stock weights, from 52 to 400gsm. It offers the option to take long sheets up to 1,200mm and prints CMYK with optional fifth and sixth colours including clear, white, gold, silver.
“At the moment we are suitably impressed,” stated Weir. “The beauty of it is that it opens up our capacity and we are looking forward to filling the spaces and being even more reactive to our clients requests,” he added.
Kellmatt, which turns over around £1.5m annually, also runs a substantial finishing unit offering offers a large range of services including cutting, folding, stitching, PUR binding, drilling and tagging with predominantly Morgana kit as well as a number of Duplo devices and a Polar guillotine.
A family operation, Kellmatt was established nearly 30 years ago by Weir’s mother, with him joining the team around 10 years later around the time digital print was first introduced to the business.
When it was launched, Kellmatt originally produced self-adhesive labels and over the years has diversified inline with customer needs and requests to offer a wide range of products and services to national and international clients across a broad spectrum of industries.
Products include short and long-run printing of booklets, business cards, invitations, labels, banner, packaging and signage printing, design and direct mail campaigns, with all litho work and related finishing being outsourced.
