It might be expected, then, that in adding a new printing arm to the wet painting and powder coating, metal sheet manufacturing, design and retail display supply companies already in the group, Dixon would perhaps start off fairly conservatively. But this, explains Dixon, would not have been such a shrewd move.
When shopping for kit to set up a new in-house print arm, Dixon didn’t want to do things by halves. He was keen to bring in-house as many of the display jobs the company outsourced before this as possible, and so was after the most productive and versatile machine he could lay his hands on. This he decided, after six months of research, was the SwissQprint Impala flatbed printer.
"It’s a premium machine," says Dixon. "It is a bit more expensive than some of the others we looked at. But the way I view it, it’s actually a more cost-effective machine. On production mode it produces at twice the rate of some of the others, but it’s not twice the price."
Dixon looked at a whole range of other machines when researching the new print venture. Also in the running were flatbed printers from Fujifilm and Océ, and hybrid printers such as the machines in the EFI Vutek ranges. "Primarily where the other machines fell down is speed," reiterates Dixon. "We can run at 130sqm/hr in draft mode, 67sqm/hr in speed mode, 34sqm/hr in production mode and 23sqm/hr in quality mode, where the other machines were running at literally half that. That’s a real boost to our output; it really helps us get through the volume of work."
Also clinching it for the Impala was quality. Again, not one to do things by halves, and keen to get his money’s worth, Dixon really put all the machines he was looking at through their paces. "In selecting the machines we gave control images out to all the manufacturers and then our design director from All4Design did a blind image test," he reports. "He immediately selected all the Impala images."
Dixon puts this impressive quality down to the printhead quality, which allows the machine to achieve 1,350dpi in slow, high-quality mode he reports. Also important, is the light cyan and light magenta tones achievable. "Because we’re running six colours, all the photo work is really of a different quality," he says. "Running the light cyan and light magenta inks means all the skin tones come out really well, as do the more subtle tones. We can also produce the really bright colours when we post process in RGB."
Clear channels
Also helping the company to process display and signage work stunning enough to grab the attention of fickle high-street shoppers is the option to have a clear gloss and white ink stream permanently in use. Whereas other machines’ refresh systems don’t always allow for these inks to be left in the machine on a permanent basis, the Impala’s does, explains Dixon. "Some people can run six colours but can’t then run a spot gloss, or they can’t run a white as well as they don’t have enough channels or they can’t leave it in because the refresh system doesn’t work in the same way. We can leave all channels in all the time," he says, explaining that this allows the company to be truly versatile in responding to its customer base’s varying needs.
What Retail Print found it couldn’t be quite as versatile as it wanted to be on, however, was the size of the banners, POS displays, textile signage and other wide-format materials they were printing. Happy as the company was with the productivity, quality and indeed reliability, of the machine, it felt something larger than the 2.5m size of the Impala was needed. So, even though the Impala was only installed last June, nine months later, Dixon upgraded it to its larger sibling, the Drupa-launched 3.2m-wide Nyala. Benefiting from the same technology, quality and speed – with the added bonus of a bigger format.
This again certainly wasn’t the cheap option, and cost a "considerable" amount. But Dixon is thrilled with the results. "Now we can deal with the really large projects that other people can’t address," he says. "Because we’re in a bespoke industry, we don’t know what tomorrow’s challenge is going to be. But now we’re able to handle rigid panels up 3.2m wide, 4m long, 50mm thick and 400kg in weight. The challenges we’ve had have been printing really wide perforated banner material for advertising, really long Dibond panels for signage and printing directly onto really large glass panels, with very intricate designs that couldn’t be done in vinyl. We print onto structured cardboard panels for lightweight display work for some very well-known brands; these are very thick sections but we can still put them under the heads."
"Then we have a roll to roll system on it," continues Dixon. "So we could quite easily be producing textile materials or perforated materials on rolls up to 80kg, 3.2m wide again. We’re doing those very large projects day in day out now."
Another bonus of making the upgrade has been gaining a dual-bed machine, adds Dixon. This further boosts the SwissQprint’s already impressive productivity. "The Nyala has a tandem function that allows you to set up the front and the back of the bed separately, so while you’re printing the work you have tiled on the front you can be tiling a job up on the back ready to print, then get ready to unload the front and so on," says Dixon, quipping: "That keeps the print operator really busy because he has to keep up with the machine."
He adds: "We literally ticked every box on the options list when we took both machines and anything I could have wished for on the Impala, we got by way of the release of the Nyala."
With two installations and bedding-in periods of course, comes a potentially doubled chance of service issues and teething problems. But this has not proved the case, reports Dixon. "We had the Impala installed and set up within a week. With the Nyala we were producing within three days; we were literally going straight into using the machine," he says, putting this down to the quality of set-up and training delivered by UK supplier Spandex.
Dixon can’t comment on the quality of service support offered by Spandex, however. Not because this is a contentious matter, but because, with both machines proving highly reliable, this is not something Dixon has ever had cause to test out.
This is particularly impressive considering how hard Retail Print work the new Nyala, reports Dixon. "We’ve worked these machines really hard, probably harder than any other SwissQprint client so far, and they’ve proved themselves to be totally reliable," he says. "We’re now running this printer 24 hours a day on three shifts."
Which of course provides more than a bit of a clue to how successful entering into a partnership with SwissQprint and Spandex has been in setting up an in-house print facility at Retail Services. "We’ve certainly got more than 12 new large clients and a good number of smaller clients as a direct result of having the print, which is significant turnover," reports Dixon. This means, he explains, that as well as boosting Retail Service’s bottom line by saving money on outsourcing print work to other firms, the print arm is actually adding extra revenue to this too.
Group development
And having print expertise in-house is boosting the success of group in other ways than just financially. The product, merchandising, display and print design arm of Retail Services, All4Design, has been enhanced by having closer contact with those actually printing the displays being designed. Dixon says: "Thanks to the print facility our designs have been driven forward as well because we can do more, we’ve got a better understanding of the technical abilities of the machinery we’ve invested in. It’s developed the group as a whole."
With the first 12 months of this new printing venture so successful, Dixon is keen to start expanding, The company is currently looking at purchasing further printing and cutting equipment but declined to reveal from which vendors. While Retail Print will continue to focus on digital print and cutting, a new Retail Signage venture, being launched this year will complement the design, metal-working, painting and installation companies already in the group, says Dixon.
"That’s the big thing on the agenda for us in 2013," he reveals, "and having the print company helps us do that."
SPECIFICATIONS
Max print area standard model: 3.2x1.6m; with oversized roll to roll or board option: 3.2x4m
Max substrate thickness 50 mm
Max substrate weight 400kg
Roll width 3.2m
Max roll weight 80kg
Max roll diameter 360mm
Inks 4-9
Max number of printheads 18
Price from £175,000
Contact Spandex 01454 616444 www.spandex.com
COMPANY PROFILE
Retail Print was established in June last year as part of display and merchandising suppliers Retail Services Group. The print arm works in conjunction with the All4Design arm of the group which creates bespoke displays for high-street retailers. Clients include Morrisons, Home Retail Group and Arcadia.
Why it was bought...
The SwissQprint Impala was purchased last June along with a Kongsberg iXP44 cutting table and other peripheral finishing equipment such as laminators, to establish Retail Print. The company upgraded to a wider format Nyala in March this year to increase the range of work it could process, and to boost productivity.
How it has performed...
The company’s reasons for choosing this brand over the other flatbed and hybrid options they looked at have held true, reports group managing director James Dixon. The printers have both delivered high-quality print at high speeds, he says, and have proved very reliable.
