The machine was installed at the Bolton business by Apex Digital Graphics and replaces a Konica Minolta 5501, said managing director Andrew Tait. He paid around £25,000 for the kit and runs the family company with his brother Martin.
Their 33-year-old print business was an early adopter of digital printing and has been involved in the technology for 20 years, according to Tait. The nine staff are on target to make £800,000 turnover and the C6000 will roll out stationery, leaflets, newsletters and handbooks.
“Litho is still our dominant production technique, but digital is now responsible for at least 20% of our output, and that is still growing,” said Andrew Tait. “We had no concerns about staying with Konica Minolta equipment: it has worked very well for us.”
Konica Minolta’s C6000 prints at up to 60ppm and images at up to 1,200 x 1,200dpi resolution with eight-bit processing for smoother, more realistic images, he said. Craftprint has added a bookletmaker output option for the fast and efficient creation of booklet style products.
The company is running the Konica Minolta equipment alongside machines including a Ryobi 524 and a DPX System platesetter. Digital print equipment could produce almost anything these days, he said.
“It is now largely down to run-length. We find our digital pricing starts to become less competitive at around 2,000 copies, but then turnaround is the other factor to consider. Customers will pay something of a premium if they need the work urgently.”
