Custom Gifts is the recently-launched new branch of Lincoln-based YPP, which also comprises Your Print Partner, Your Promo Partner and Santa Sacks in its portfolio.

The DGI printer was taken for £150,000 from Barnsley-based vendor Sabur Digital to support the launch of Custom Gifts. Arriving for a two-month trial in June, it was officially purchased by YPP at the start of this month.

Group chief executive Stuart Maclaren said: “With the DGI, we can produce cushions, bedding, towels, fleeces and all kinds of weird and wonderful textile projects. We went to the market to find a high-speed machine and found Sabur and DGI could deliver what we wanted in terms of speed and correct colours.

“We have a lot of brand licenses; we work with 45 football teams, as well as serving Warner Brothers which gives us brands such as Harry Potter and Looney Tunes, so the colours have to be very specific to gain our clients’ approval.

“The DGI machine has an impressive speed and meets our requirement for a 1.8m-wide system while not breaking the bank like some more advanced systems. DGI were also happy to make small modifications to the software and hardware to suit our way of working.”

The HSFT III was spotted by YPP at Sign & Digital UK 2019 at Birmingham's NEC earlier this year. It prints four colours at a maximum resolution of 600x1,200dpi with speeds up to 250sqm/hr.

Alongside the machine installation, YPP has also built a new web-to-print service for Custom Graphics, which will provide B2C personalisation of clothing items and other textiles. The web-to-print was made especially by YPP to streamline its production process.

From its premises, recently expanded to 3,420sqm, 76 members of staff work across all of YPP’s brands. It is a predominantly-Mimaki house with a vast range of the manufacturer’s wide-format machinery alongside an Esko Kongsberg C60 cutter and three Transmatic ovens.