The Hatfield-based company has ordered a HP Indigo 10000 for delivery in the autumn.

The £1.3m spend on the Indigo comes on top of a £1m investment programme over the past 18 months.

This has seen the company add to its printing firepower with a HP Indigo 5600 and four-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SX52, as well as bolstering its finishing facilities with a Horizon BQ470 PUR binder, a Heidelberg TH56 folder and Polar 115X Plus guillotine with paper handling setup.

An Autobond Mini76 TPMHS thermal laminator with magnet attaching facility was installed just last week.

The firm, which provides a wide range of commercial print and finishing services in-house as well as a web-to-print facility, also runs a Heidelberg Speedmaster XL75.

"Having B2 is going to open up lots of opportunities and give us an edge," said managing director Jon Lancaster. "The Indigo is the fastest at 4,600sph in enhanced productivity mode, the sheet size is good, the duplexing ability is good, the print quality is high and it also does special colours such as white."

The £3m turnover, 25-staff company needs to build an extension to house the new digital press, which will be installed in September or October.

"We want it in for the run-up to Christmas, and we can perhaps help other printers with trade work too," Lancaster added.

The firm’s unusual move into creating its own mirrored substrate, achieved by laminating a special film onto plain board, came as a result of a customer request. It took three months to develop. 

"A customer had a call for it, and we went and bought some of the mirror stock that’s commercially available, but the cost of it meant we could only really do the sample quantities on our digital press," Lancaster explained.

"By making our own mirror board we can be competitive on longer runs using digital and we can compete with UV litho. We’ve already produced 130,000 DVD sleeves, all with white ink, and I’m happy there are no scratching or static problems with it."

Lancaster is now planning to offer the board, which is available in silver or gold foil finish, to other printers via the company’s e-commerce site at www.printedeasy.com. He also intends to put it through HP’s accreditation process.

"I could make 40,000-50,000 SRA3 sheets a day, if I needed to, and I’ve created a ‘how to’ guide with all the information people need to print on it successfully," he added.