The purchase was made in December and the machine has been in full operation for just over a month.
The Newcastle-based commercial printer’s decision to invest in new equipment was sparked by some customers failing to return.
Production director Craig McCall said: “A couple of existing customers lapsed because of the cost of running the jobs. The quality was always good, it was just the price.
“That was one of the fundamental reasons to go down the Ricoh route because it is a cheaper machine to run. Obviously, some of our customers are price-dependent but they have come back now and are starting to place orders again.”
The “major leap” from HP to Ricoh was also influenced by the cost and quality of the machines, he said.
“We’ve always been an Indigo user and we looked down the HP route, but the outlay was high to replace the original kit. So we looked at a few alternate suppliers, Ricoh being one of them. I really liked the quality, so that’s the route we went down. I’m really pleased with it,” said McCall.
“There were very small differences but the Ricoh handled certain jobs better than the Indigo did.”
Aurora hopes to see a 50% upturn in productivity with the new machine and McCall said the company had already witnessed this first-hand.
“One of the first major runs of the machine was about a seven-hour print job. The Ricoh never jammed once in seven hours, it just ran constantly.”
As part of a planned expansion McCall said Aurora was looking to move premises for a more modern and fit-for-purpose building "with a nicer environment", he said.
The firm, which has a subsidiary called Crakel Cards, is also planning to expand its greetings card range, he explained.
“We’re busy doing a trial at the moment. They’re a really good product and have really caught the imagination. It’s going quite well," Mccall added.
Family-run Aurora Digital Print will celebrate its 11th anniversary this June. The company’s current turnover is just under £250,000 and it plans to double that over the next couple of years.
