The company has installed an HP FB 500 Scitex flatbed printer, a Zund G3 router, twin HP Latex L26600 Plotters and an HP Indigo 3550.

"We are now in many ways a traditional printer, but we're all digital," BarkerBlue sales executive Michael Turnbull told PrintWeek. "We picked up the Scitex in October and part of that was so we could offer digital high-end printing solutions for Silicon Valley. Many of these companies are competing for VC money or they're competing to retain employees and in order to do that they have to brand themselves well, from the get go."

BarkerBlue is offering these young companies everything from short-run annual report production and high-end direct mail catalogs, to point-of-purchase posters (POP), and branding and marketing materials durable enough for use on department store floors and large enough to wrap the outside of a commercial building or cover large retail windows.

"From trade show collateral all the way to branding their physical spaces, we're in all of that," Turnbull explained. "In the Bay area, there are all kinds of retail and the Scitex Flatbed gets us into rigid materials so we're now providing a whole new set of offerings to these stores and we're doing a lot of short-run and localization."

The HP Scitex Flatbed  features up to 1,200x600 optimized dpi, 5’ x 10’ full-color projects, including white ink capability, and can print on virtually any rigid or flexible media, while the HP Indigo 3550 Digital Press offers variable data imaging, up to five-color print, true spot and brand color capabilities.

Turnbull noted that while the bulk of BarkerBlue customers are in the San Francisco/Silicon Valley area, the company is looking to leverage its web presence and state of the art equipment to broaden its reach geographically.

BarkerBlue also provides document management and digital imaging and printing services for the architecture, building management and construction industries and Turnbull said the printing side was originally put it place to support that business, but has now been expanded into retail and branding. "We finished 2012 very nicely and with our new equipment and expanded product offerings we expect to do very well this year," he added.