The Greater Manchester wide-format printer, which has been trading for nearly 20 years, serves customers globally, particularly completing exhibition work for European businesses – including high-profile retail clients.

The company said that while it has dabbled in fabric with UV, it decided to invest around £400,000 to properly set up its new fabric department.

As well as the Agfa Avinci, it has taken on a specialist calender unit, purchased new tooling for its two cutting tables, has new sewing machines, and now employs two experienced full-time seamstresses. The business also took on another unit to house the finishing equipment.

“You can’t dip your toe in to fabric printing, you need to do it properly,” said FDP director Darren Taylor.

“We see a lot of growth for the business in printed fabrics both from our existing customers and new ones. It will allow us to print on a wider range of substrates and we can pack them smaller, fold them, making it easier to post them out to clients.”

The business said that when it decided to move into the fabric print marketplace more seriously, it looked at all the main suppliers and wanted to go with an established brand.

It ultimately decided on an offline printer with separate fixation unit as it felt this was less limiting on materials and would give it better colour consistency.

The FDP team also visited Northern Flags, which runs three Agfa dye-sub machines, and spoke to its production team. This visit, coupled with a longstanding relationship with local Agfa salesman Wesley Small, gave it the confidence to order the Avinci.

The machine produces “vibrant high-quality prints” on polyester-based fabrics up to 3.2m-wide, including soft signage for inside and outdoors and for interior decoration. It can print directly to fabrics as well as onto transfer paper and its offline calender unit is said to ensure perfect fixation.