The business took delivery of the machine last week and has built a special room around it to ensure the optimum running conditions in terms of temperature and humidity.
The compact device was launched in February and is the result of Konica Minolta’s partnership with Portuguese developer Mtex NS.
It prints onto flat or pre-die-cut sheets using Memjet printheads and water-based inks in CMYKK, onto sheets up to a maximum thickness of 15mm and 1.2m in width, with no limit to the length of the sheet. The imaging width is 1.067m and it prints at 1,600x1,600dpi or 1,600x800dpi at a speed of either 150mm or 300mm per second.
Party Decor owner Jan Jaskowiec told Printweek: “We have worked with Konica Minolta for four years, and we already have digital printers from them that we use to print products like bunting, stationery, and notepads.
“At the start of the year we were buying a new Konica Minolta AccurioPress C4070 and while we were getting that installed we were already manufacturing plain cardboard boxes. During the installation, one of the managers that we work with closely brought us samples of products that can be made on the PKG-675i.
“From our existing customers we’ve had questions about whether we can [also] do printed boxes, so it was something that we had in mind already to some extent.
“When Konica Minolta said they were in the process of rolling out a new machine that is a digital printer for cardboard, after some negotiations and meetings, and a presentation of the machine in Portugal [we decided to invest]. The machine is awesome, it goes for hundreds of sheets per hour so has a pretty solid speed.”
On the back of the investment the business has already signed a contract with a major distributor of Chinese products to the UK market for the exclusive production – at its UK headquarters – of flower boxes, which the distributor had previously been importing from China. The contract is worth at least £750,000 a year and has a minimum length of two years.
Jaskowiec said other products produced on the machine will include pizza boxes for takeaways, which were not viable for the business to outsource before due to the short runs in the hundreds that are typically required.
Party Decor is based out of five buildings, including a distribution centre in Doncaster that opened four months ago, and its two-storey 1,115sqm headquarters in Stockton-on-Tees, which comprises a 743sqm production space and a 372sqm sales office.
It has a major contract with Amazon that sees it manufacture products carrying the Amazon logo. The company also sells its own branded products to its customers via Amazon, as well as via its own website.
The business has experienced year-on-year growth; in 2019 it recorded sales of £1m, in 2020 this grew to £2m, and Jaskowiec said it is now on target to make around £3m this year. It currently employs 12 staff and is planning to recruit more in the coming months.
Investment in specialist kit for the cardboard venture, including the Konica Minolta printer, two Crosland cutters, a forklift truck, and a baler, has totalled around £300,000.
Earlier this year the business also installed a Duplo DBM-150 bookletmaker, and two Summa wide-format cutters to join other finishing kit from manufacturers including Heidelberg and Grafcut. It also operates digital printers from Canon, and two wide-format printers from Mimaki.
The company’s total investment so far this year, including all of the aforementioned purchases as well as new specialist plastic moulding kit, is around £600,000.
