The 38-staff litho and digital printer took delivery of the Ricoh two weeks ago at its 10,000sqm Ipswich premises and will install the StitchLiner in around two weeks’ time, following Ipex. The StitchLiner represented the lion's share of the investment at around £150,000.
Healeys managing director Philip Dodd said the decision to purchase the 110ppm Ricoh, which joins an existing Ricoh 7100 and a Kodak Nexpress with long-sheet feeder, was driven in part by the potential of winning a major contract the company had bid for. However, he added that he would have invested regardless following two months of record sales.
“We’ve been involved with Ricoh for a number of years and had quite a few Ricoh presses,” said Dodd.
“We do a lot of marketing and going out and just telling people you’re a B2 printer, if they’re kind they’ll say ‘So what?’ So we tend to particularly market on the unusual things that our NexPress and Ricoh can do, the whites, the golds, the ultra matt print and of course the long-sheet on both machines.”
The CMYK Ricoh prints at a maximum resolution of 1,200x4,800dpi and can process media of between 52gsm and 400gsm. The company has retained its 7100 but on a pay-as-you-use basis.
“It’s more robust, it’s got a better duty cycle than the 7100 – 1 million A4 monthly impressions compared to 250,000 – and there’s going to be an awful lot of work going through it,” added Dodd.
Launched in May, the StitchLiner will be supplied by Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS), Horizon’s exclusive UK and Ireland distributor, immediately after Ipex, where it will be given its first UK showing. It can run at maximum speeds of 6,000bph and 12,000bph with 2-up production and can also produce A4 landscape booklets at up to 5,300bph.
Dodd said: “We have had our first StitchLiner for 11 years now – IFS has been a wonderful seller for them – when we bought it we were a B3 printer but for the short runs that we do the new one is much faster.”
Healeys also runs a raft of finishing kit, some of which was purchased last year after a £120,000 spend, along with two Speedmasters on the litho side ,with Dodd adding that the £3.8m-turnover outfit will continue to invest in digital technologies and is considering inkjet in the near future.
“We might need a new factory at that time,” he added.
