ABC Imaging chose two flagship imagePress C10000VP presses and two imagePress C800 devices to replace other Canon machines.
The new devices are due to be installed in two weeks and the contract signed at Drupa was worth about €500,000 (£391,000).
The two C10000VPs will replace two Canon 8000s. The two C800s will be in addition to kit that includes a Canon 7000, two Océ Geminis, an Océ Arizona, Océ Memjet and two Océ ColorWaves.
Chief executive Ray Hawkins said: “With business continuing to grow, especially from the drop-in student market, which is becoming immense for us, we decided we needed to upgrade our digital presses to give us greater capacity.
“We can make £75,000 a month and up to £600,000 a year from students coming in and asking us to print their portfolios and theses.
“When the students graduate and go out into the working world they will think where they got their print from. They are our best sales people and don't cost us a penny.”
ABC Imaging has made the investment to support business growth across its client base, which includes the architecture, banking, legal and educational sectors.
The new machines would provide a “significant step up both in quality and productivity”, said Hawkins, whose 46 staff make £4.1m turnover but aim to break the £5m mark in 12 months.
“We had a long relationship with Océ which continued when they became part of Canon: around 95 per cent of the equipment we now have is from Canon," he said.
Hawkins added: “We saw the imagePress C10000VP in action at Canon Expo last year and thought that, as well as being more productive, the print quality was so much better than the earlier models.”
ABC Imaging will also use the new kit to print work they previously had to outsource, which amounted to around £5,000 of higher quality work each month.
“The print quality of the C10000VP is so good that we won’t need to outsource that work any more.”
Canon Europe European professional print director Mark Lawn said: “With its growing print volumes ABC Imaging was looking for the next generation of production print technology to deliver the necessary levels of quality and productivity to meet its needs.”
