The Huddersfield company offers a wide range of foiled products from wedding stationery and invitations, to art prints, brochures and business cards including an 800gsm ‘colour core’ triplex version.
It also produces a host of promotional products including swing tags, bag toppers and stickers.
The business started offering foiled products two years ago, with sales growing to around £60,000 a month to customers in the UK, Europe and North America.
As a result demand started to outstrip the capabilities of its two older foiling devices.
“We saw the Kurz machine at Ricoh in Telford a couple of times and did quite a bit of testing on it before deciding to invest,” explained director Liam Smith.
He said the DM-Luxliner had increased foiling capacity and dramatically speeded up production.
The DM-Luxliner is a UV-free metallisation system that uses printed output from toner-based digital presses (and HP’s ElectroInk) as the adhesive for the foil, meaning no additional adhesives are required.
It has a B2 format and runs at up to 2,400sph. Kurz said the output can be deinked in standard recycling processes.
The device uses Kurz’s Digital Metal system which combines the software, the machine itself, and different types of foil. The foil can be over-printed and it can also be used as an alternative to metallised papers or cardboards.
It was installed at the Foil Printing Co's 650sqm factory in February.
Smith said the firm had invested more than £100,000 in the new machine, and was looking to boost its digital printing offering next with an upcoming investment in a new digital press with white ink capability.
The 13-employee firm uses Instagram to showcase its work and promote its services to creative businesses.
“Pre-Covid we turned over approximately £1m. But I think this year we will be much closer to £1.3m due to marketing foil to the USA and our new products,” he said.
Sara Hill, sales manager at Leonhard Kurz UK, commented: “The Foil Printing Co saw an opportunity to change their business during the pandemic by making sure they had the right technology and to focus on new ways of printing.
“The Kurz DM-Luxliner was the perfect fit for their existing toner based digital print set up, producing exceptional metallic results from the first sheet in combination with their production lead times being considerably reduced.”
The Foil Printing Co currently runs two Konica Minolta digital presses: a Bizhub Press C1085 and AccurioPress C6085 alongside a host of finishing kit.
The firm also bought a Vivid VeloBlade digital die-cutter and new guillotine prior to the pandemic as part of its growth strategy.
“After investing in the new foil printing machine, we’re now focusing on reinvesting our profits to improve our service, with new product releases set for later this year,” Smith added.
The Foil Printing Co is part of the Aura Print group.
