Central to the spend was a Canon Océ Arizona 2280 XT 2.5x3m flatbed with roll-to-roll and a Zünd G3 digital cutter. The new eight-channel Arizona replaces an older Arizona, a 350 XT, and the Zünd joins an existing G3 to boost Displayways' digital cutting and routing capabilities.
The Arizona and Zünd will both arrive in August, once building work to create additional office space has been completed.
In the past few months the Earlsfield, south west London-based firm has also installed a brace of 1.6m-wide Mimaki roll-to-roll machines, a JV 300-160 and a CJV 300-160, both from CMYUK, which joined a JFX 500 2.1x3.1m flatbed.
The spending spree follows the business doubling in size since managing director Rob Kelly and business partner Peter Sheldrick bought it in 2012. “There isn’t a single machine left now that was with the business when we bought it,” he said.
From sales of £1.8m and less than 20 staff five years ago, it now employs 36 and has sales of more than £4m.
To fuel its next stage of growth, former Service Graphics sales director Nick Bishop has joined the business, setting up project management operation Displayways Visual Communication (DVC) as a three-way joint venture with Kelly and Sheldrick.
“Nick and I go back a long way, probably 25 years, and we’ve been talking for a long time,” said Kelly.
The new standalone business was soft launched at the end of 2016 and is expected to generate sales of around £1m this year. Based in Displayways' premises, the DVC business currently employs four staff and offers a broad range of large-format products, expanding on Displayways staple of premium exhibition, museum and interior graphics.
While DVC places some of its work with Displayways, it also works with a roster of print suppliers across the globe. Kelly added that he hoped, in time, DVC will scale up to the point it will warrant a standalone production facility.
“It [DVC] is a visual consultancy and project management model, so production can go through us, but we also have the opportunity to place work elsewhere if, for example, it requires larger more industrial type production – because Displayways production model is very much geared to high-end, high-quality.”
As well as Bishop, the Displayways team has also been bolstered by three other appointments: client services director Paula Paterson and finishing manager Martin Barnard both joined around six months ago from Service Graphics and from Icon respectively, while account director Martin Hort joined from Echo House around two months ago.
