While nosing around during the Drupa build I stumbled across a company that was a new name to me at the time: Graph-Tech.
It was showing a neat looking inkjet web press that was compact and relatively cheap at ?300,000, and came without the click charges that printers often find so tiresome.
I was intrigued to find out more about this Swiss company and a bit of further nosing around revealed that Domino had an investment in it. Ah-ha! I thought.
How I wish it would have been possible to place a bet on Domino upping its stake in the business (or indeed to have bought shares in Graph-Tech...), not that Domino making clever strategic investments is anything new. But I would have bet big on them taking over Graph-Tech.
In a subsequent Drupa conversation with Domino director of digital printing solutions Philip Easton he said that Domino considered Graph-Tech to be quite simply the best inkjet integrators out there, and this was reflected in some of the unique functions of the K600i and N600i devices. Graph-Tech's clever inkjet techies were also the chosen folk for the necessary inkjet integration for Landa's big launch.
Domino's digital printing portfolio for mainstream printing applications just gets more and more interesting. Alongside its own first standalone press in the N600i it now has the MonoCube in its range which takes it into areas such as transactional printing and books. Combined with all the potential hybrid applications for the clever K600i overprinting system this really is a significant range of kit.
With suitably on-trend patriotic fervour I have to say it is fantastic to see a British supplier to our industry being both innovative and successful.