At Drupa the circa £41m turnover Laindon-based print and mailing group announced a partnership with Kodak to develop a ‘digilitho’ digital press based on the manufacturer’s upcoming next-generation Ultrastream continuous inkjet technology.

Anton eschewed its typical mega Drupa order for litho presses as a result. It runs six B1 Heidelberg Speedmaster long perfectors at its 15,330sqm site: five 12-colours and a 10-colour, and has fitted Kodak Prosper imprinting heads to two of the presses for personalisation.

The factory has the capacity to produce 1.6 million B1 sheets every 24 hours.

“It’s possible that we’ve bought our last Speedmaster but I think there’s another phase to go yet – we still have two 102s and putting in XL106 technology to replace those would probably be our [litho] swansong,” said chief executive Malcolm Lane-Ley.

“With litho our customers can have very high quality, at very high-speed and they can choose the paper they like and add personalisation all in one go,” he noted.

Lane-Ley said the firm had been waiting for things to settle down after Drupa before putting timescales together with Kodak for the Ultrastream development, but expected to start work on the project “imminently”.

“The idea is we will literally build something here and stress test it. We have a track record of developing products together so the trust is there,” he explained.

“We are looking at a full continuous-feed solution running reel-to-sheet, and probably something like 520mm wide – if you go too wide you would have so much capacity you’d be wondering where the orders were coming from as it’s so fast. Also, the market is moving to shorter runs,” he noted.

Lane-Ley said that all of the current inkjet technologies involved some sort of compromise but he believed "that will change over the next couple of years”.

“We are on the cusp of a revolution but not quite there yet. I saw Ultrastream samples at Drupa on standard paper with no pre- or post-coating, and I thought ‘wow’ this is ahead of everything else but it’s not ready yet.

“Our journey is probably the same as theirs [Kodak’s], at one-to-two years so there is harmony in the timescales,” Lane-Ley added.

Kodak has claimed that Ultrastream will “move production inkjet into the mainstream of commercial printing and packaging”.

Anton is also unfazed by the likely impending change of ownership for Kodak’s Prosper and Ultrastream inkjet business. Kodak announced the sell-off in March.

Xerox, which is in the process of splitting into two and appears to have quashed a possible deal to take over print giant RR Donnelley, has been tipped as a potential buyer for the operation.