The £14,000 six-colour latex printer, supplied by HP distributor Perfect Colours, arrived at the printer’s Maidstone, Kent facility last week, joining an eight-colour HP Z6100 aqueous printer already in place.

Black Lion Press director Mark Stokes said that the mainly-litho print business doesn’t promote itself as a wide format printer, which accounts for around 10% of the firm’s work, but had recently received more orders for outdoor banners and signage.

While the 1.5m Z6100 has served Black Lion Press' point-of-sale and exhibition market well, Stokes said that the latex inks used in the L26500 were better for outdoor work. The company weighed up both latex and solvent inks for outdoor applications, but eventually decided to go
with latex.

And the L26500 has already had its first live production run, printing 101 banners for a nutrition company. Black Lion Press was commissioned to produce six 4x1m and 95 2x1m 260gsm Polytex banners by the firm, which became a client in October last year, to be displayed at a number of gyms throughout the UK.

The company has a turnover of £500,000 currently, which Stokes said he hopes to increase by £50,000 by the end of 2013 through the lucrative projects that can be processed with the new HP latex printer and the firm’s other departments, including litho, digital, and direct mail.