The 100ppm printer was installed at 3B Design on 14 December and co-owners managing director Samantha Triggs and sales director Adam Triggs, said they like the quality, speed and output of the machine.
Adam Triggs said: “We went with the Versant because we’ve had Xeroxes for the last eight years. The Versant offered us the versatility and the quality that we wanted including the long sheet feed that was included in it. I think we’re one of the first companies in the country to have it.
“The Versant can normally print on 430x320mm, ours will do 650x320mm, which allows us to do six pages of A4. It utilises the paper better for us. Historically you would’ve had to go to litho to offer that.”
Triggs said the Versant, which has a resolution of 2,400x2,400 dpi and handles paper from 52gsm, to 350gsm is ideal for their business which has a lot of short-run and variable-data jobs, as well as helping with offering an “end-to-end solution” to clients, which range from accountancy firms, to government agencies and the food sector.
This could, for example see them complete variable-data mailings, followed by exhibition graphics, create a digital app for the show and then print post-show variable-data marketing based on data collected by the app at the event.
“We specialist in print-on-demand. It allows us to offer a better range of products to our corporate clients who typically like these options. Once clients come on board, we give them more bang for their buck and the fastest delivery possible. If they order before 11am they get it the next day,” Triggs said.
“Since we’ve been back from the Christmas break, we’ve been putting the Versant through its paces. I was expecting it to need to be bedded in but it’s just flying.”
The printer, which was sold by Xeretec, is the last addition to a £250,000 spend over the past 18 months. The company also upgraded wide-format ad finishing kit. It runs a Mimaki JV300 flatbed and a Mimaki roll-fed eco-solvent JFX200 for wall graphics. Last summer it took delivery of a CNC machine which can kiss-cut any type of material up to 50mm thick, Triggs said.
He said the partners, who are married, got a lot of advice and demonstrations from Xeretec, before making the right choice of the Versant.
The business has nine staff working out of a 325sqm premises in March, Cambridgeshire, with a turnover between £500,000 and £1m. In 2013 both Triggs completed a business growth programme at Cranfield School of Management aimed at business owner managers like them.
