The Bury St Edmunds printer bought the digital label presses as part of a £1m spending plan that has already meant a 50% increase in capacity for its digital business.
“We are quite bullish, to be honest, we are quite excited,” said Tom Allum, Abbey Labels chairman.
The £7m turnover firm will also have taken delivery of three pieces of kit from AB Graphic by the end of November: a Digicon 3 finisher, an automatic turret rewinder, and a flatbed screen unit. These machines complete Abbey's existing stock of Digicon finishing machines.
“[The installations] add extra capacity, and give our customers even more choice in the embellishment of labels. There basically isn’t any embellishment that we cannot do, now,” Allum added.
The investment, he said, should increase the company’s digital turnover, which currently accounts for just over a third of the business, by 20-25%.
The CX300 installations have been particularly smooth for Abbey, as the machines replaced a pair of Xeikon CX3s, which it traded in while retaining the same print operators.
The new digital presses run at 30m/min, with a 1,200x3,600dpi LED imaging head. Single-pass opaque white or custom colours can be added in the machines’ fifth print station.
Allum said he was impressed at the presses’ ability to retain their quality on challenging substrates, whilst also minimising environmental impact.
The presses do not emit harmful volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or generate water pollution, and Allum has found them energy efficient - all important for the firm, which holds an ISO 14001 environmental accreditation.
“And by being the most food-safe digital print technology on the market with an output that is compatible with existing recycling processes, it also gives our customers the reassurance that they are choosing the most food compliant and environmentally friendly production method for their labels,” he added.
Filip Weymans, vice president of marketing at Xeikon, said: “Abbey Labels has built up a very strong digital label printing business based on Xeikon dry toner technology, going right back to 2013 when the first Xeikon 3300 press was installed, and we are proud to continue this great partnership.”
Abbey Labels also runs a number of flexo presses, including three from MPS and two from Gallus. In 2020, it was the first to integrate an AB Graphic high-speed die-cutting module onto an MPS EFS 340 flexo press.
