Marking its 15th anniversary, in February this year it installed a 3.4m-wide EFI Vutek FabriVu 340i+ dye-sublimation inkjet printer, the latest version of the FabriVu direct-to-fabric family, as well as its fourth Zünd cutting table, a G3 3XL model.
The new FabriVu 340i+ has integral heated fixation for the inks and it joined two earlier 340 printers that share a separate external heated calendering system. It replaced an older Mtex printer, meaning that all of the company’s printers are now made by EFI. The others are two 3.2m EFI Vutek h5 UV-LED flatbed-roll hybrids and two 3.2m GS3250r roll-fed UV-LED models.
Finishing is handled by the four Zünd cutting tables, plus two Vivid Easymount laminators, two Miller Weldmaster T300 systems, a 16m FIAB high-frequency welder, three laser-guided eyeletters and numerous sewing machines for fabric finishing.
“Venture Banners is a trade-only large- format print supplier with a mission to help printers build lucrative revenue streams with large format,” says Scott Conway, who co-founded the company together with Wayne Bodimeade – both are still hands-on directors. “We produce everything from standard roller banners and traditional pop-up systems to flags, complete exhibition graphic solutions, stretch fabric displays, café and crowd barrier graphics and much more.
“We have a very broad mix of customers. For example, they include design studios and creative agencies who sell print as an added value service, small high street print shops that don’t have their own wide format facilities, and other large format print businesses that need extra capacity.”
Before starting Venture in January 2009, Conway and Bodimeade were in charge of marketing for what was then the Dutton Forshaw Motor group (now Lookers), which had more than 30 dealerships. The pair built up plenty of experience of buying print, supplying artwork and general marketing. They spent 18 months exploring what looked like a gap in the market for print partners who could aggregate small orders into volumes that made economic sense for large format production services.
Originally they worked from an office in Conway’s garage but soon took on staff and moved into an office in Chelmsford. As the business grew, the pair decided to offer their own print services, and an EFI Vutek GS3250r was purchased and housed in a 700sqm warehouse in Witham. Over the next five years another EFI Vutek GS and a 2.5m Zünd table were added.
In December 2015 the Witham lease was ending and Venture’s owners wanted to expand into textiles. They bought a 1,950sqm factory unit in Braintree. “Five months of very hard work followed to get the building up to a suitable standard and we finally moved in February 2017,” says Conway.
More room allowed more kit, so an Mtex 3.2m HS5032 dye-sublimation textile printer was added, plus a 3.2m Zünd with textile cutter and router, followed by another Vutek GS3250r.
The Mtex proved a success for flags so the company wanted to expand the textiles side. August 2018 saw the delivery of its first Vutek FabriVu 340 along with a Klieverik calender unit; a second 340 followed in November 2019. Two more Vutek h5 hybrid UV LED printers were installed in 2022, printing up to 109 standard 8x4ft boards per hour with high quality.
Installing solar panels on the roof in 2018 proved an astute move. There are 176 two-metre panels, says Conway. “Although solar power doesn’t provide all of our energy, it does provide a lot and I’m sure you can imagine that the installation has more than paid for itself in the years since.”
Why buy a third FabriVu?
“Years ago, when we were setting up the business, a senior industry peer told us that in this industry you can never just buy one of something,” says Conway. “You’ve got to have two to build in the redundant capacity that you need for when things go wrong. That’s partly what this investment was about. We wanted to expand our production capacity, of course, but it was also about providing back-up for if the Klieverik went down. As it happens, that happened a few weeks ago, so we got to test our theory ‘live’ and it all worked exactly as we’d hoped it would, which meant no delays for customers.”
Files for ripping go through Venture’s pre-press studio. “The machines then receive print files created in Caldera RIP software linked to our imposition software,” says Conway. “To reduce waste to the absolute minimum, we have two people whose job it is to play Tetris with the various different artworks and create print-efficient nests.”
What’s a FabriVu 340i+?
Brett Platt is textiles business manager at CMYUK, the UK distributor which sold and installed all of Venture’s EFIs over the years. He says, “The original FabriVu 340 was direct-to-fabric but without inline fixation. The 340i added the inline fixation unit, while the 340i+ gained a revised heat plate with three zones across the width, for more consistent colour. The fume extraction system is also arranged to even-out the flow across the print width, again for consistency.
“The 340i also has eight single-channel printheads instead of four twin-channels. The result is still dual CMYK but printing is faster and uses slightly less ink – though still limited by the time needed to heat up the print for sublimation.”
The two earlier FabriVu 340s don’t have inline fixations, so they share the Klieverik calendering unit to reheat the textile so the dye vaporises and is absorbed permanently. Inline fixation allows faster, more efficient throughput as the fabric emerges ready to finish.
How did the adoption go?
The company’s relationship with EFI started in 2011 – it has always purchased its machines from the UK agent CMYUK. “When the time came to invest in our own equipment, we went over to have a look at the EFI Vutek GS series of printers in Brussels,” says Conway. “The printers were spectacular and still are. In 2014 our old premises suffered a catastrophic flood caused by a cloudburst, and the support that we received from EFI, who flew in replacement parts overnight, was outstanding. We had already considered ourselves to be an EFI printing house before then, but that level of customer service really cemented that.”
Installing the big FabriVus has been complicated a bit by Venture’s unusual building. It’s on three storeys, with a basement level that has access doors at one end, and a ground floor with doors at the opposite end (onto the main driveway).
All three FabriVus are in the basement where the access doors are at the far end from the driveway, so everything has to go up or down an outside ramp. As Conway says, “That makes installing a new machine of that size an interesting experience!”
There’s a video of the latest FabriVu delivery on Venture’s website, here: https://bit.ly/3BmJupc. As the caption points out, unloading a huge £250,000, 6m-plus-wide, 4,800kg printer by forklift from the delivery truck, then transporting it safely down a long 30˚ slope while holding it up 3m high to clear a perimeter fence, was somewhat hair-raising! However, it all went smoothly.
What’s next?
“Fabrics now amount to around 40% of our sales and have become a significant part of our business, says Conway. “As a result, we have invested in four new industrial sewing machines this year to help with the increase in textile volumes. At The Print Show this year we launched Honeycomb Monolith, a fully- recyclable alternative to a roller banner or stretch fabric stand that is made from 16mm thick honeycomb board.
“The Print Show always yields results for us,” Conway says. “We had a great show this year and it’s always a pleasure to catch up with and chat to our existing customers – it’s their feedback and support that drives the business forward.”
SPECIFICATIONS
Process Aqueous dye-sublimation inkjet
Colours Dual CMYK
Max print width 3.4m
Fabric weights 45-450gsm
Max speeds Outdoor up to 480sqm/hr; Production up to 248sqm/hr; Backlit up to 166sqm/hr
Max resolution 2,400dpi
Drop sizes 7, 12 and 18pL
Finishing Inline heat fixation
Footprint 2.2x6.1m
Front-end Fiery XF as standard (Venture uses Caldera Rip)
Cost (In Venture’s configuration) £250,000
Contact CMYUK 0118 989 2929 www.cmyuk.com
COMPANY PROFILE
Venture Banners is a 15-year-old company based in Braintree, Essex. It offers trade-only large-format services, including banners, flags, soft signage and rigid media including aluminium composites and eco-friendly honeycomb board. It employs 51 people and uses all-EFI printers supplied by CMYUK, plus finishing equipment including four Zünd cutting tables. Its latest EFI Vutek FabriVu 3.4m dye-sublimation printer is its third in this range.
Why it was bought...
“For us, this investment was predominantly about increasing capacity,” says director Scott Conway. “We would always (grudgingly) prefer to turn away work rather than let someone down, so we believed that if we wanted to offer faster turnaround times, we needed to have the capacity. This investment, in both the EFI Vutek FabriVU 340i+ and the new Zünd, has given us the capability to consistently offer faster turnaround times, and for some work we can now consistently offer express turnaround times for a nominal fee.”
How it has performed...
As a long-standing Vutek user, Venture knew the quality of the FabriVu 340i+ would deliver everything the firm needed – and it has.
