The Xerox 700i has become the £400,000-turnover company’s second digital printer after it bought an Océ CPS 900 four years ago.
Panda Press’s sales director Hannah Tunnicliffe said the new press had a better click rate which made jobs with smaller run lengths more "cost-viable".
"We can now be more competitive with our pricing and we can confidently offer a range of papers and guarantee consistent quality," she said.
The company also has a Ryobi 524GX four-colour, sheet fed, B3 litho press and Tunnicliffe said the new printer would allow it to "bridge the gap" between digital and litho printing.
"We can now offer very similar like-for-like quality with digital. You’d have to be well educated in the art of print to tell the difference," she said.
The installation is part of a continual investment programme that will also see the company acquire web-to-print technology within the next six months.
Tunnicliffe said Panda Press was looking for something that would make uploading and processing artwork simple for the client as well as making order handling easier for the company.
"Web-to-print’s not right for every customer and it wouldn’t be suitable for our bespoke projects but for the straightforward standard format jobs a lot of clients prefer it."
Tunnicliffe also said the eight-employee company was looking at taking on two apprentices or graduates in both its pressroom and its estimating department.
"We’ll be looking at taking on people from colleges such as More Training in Stoke over the next few months.
"There are financial incentives and subsidies involved with recruiting apprentices and graduates and these help to ensure that we stay competitive in the market place," she added.
