CCA, which specialises in personalised products, cards, and calendars, installed a Ricoh Pro C9500 and Canon Arizona 4080XT flatbed in November last year, bringing in a Kongsberg flatbed cutter and two James Burn wire binders to support them.

The C9500, capable of 135ppm, has helped CCA target short runs that previously had to be shopped out to trade printers, according to managing director Gary Taylor.

He told Printweek: “It’s really to give us that facility for short runs, and it helps us respond faster to customer demands. We don’t have to hold as much stock, either: it’s a great boost for the business.”

CCA has “plenty of room” for the new purchases in its 6,500sqm Leyland site, Taylor added, so getting the machines in alongside their existing fleet – which includes an HP Indigo 7800 for longer sheet stocks – presented no problem.

The toner-based C9500 can handle paper between 40 and 470gsm, with CCA’s model equipped with a 960mm banner feed for longer stocks and a high-capacity stacker and production staple finisher.

Backed by the two James Burn wire-binders, the new machine has helped boost CCA’s short-run capacity for cards, calendars and notebooks, with the latter two now entirely produced in-house, helping CCA to boost its profit margins.

Wide-format, introduced with the Arizona and Kongsberg, is a new area for the firm, but Taylor was happy with progress – and some significant client wins already under the firm’s belt.

Tim Carter, commercial print director at Ricoh Graphic Communications, added: “CCA Occasions have a long history of success in Lancashire and across the UK, and we’re delighted to be partnering with a print business whose roots go back 100 years.

“As with all our partners, we’ve built a strong relationship and worked tirelessly to thoroughly understand the company’s business requirements - not just today but, most importantly, in the future as the business is looking to expand into new markets.”