Hollywood Monster spent £200,000 on the 2m-wide Vutek H2000 Pro, which joins an existing kit armoury including two other Vuteks. It will be used to produce jobs including hoardings for building developers.
Managing director Simon McKenzie said: “We deal with large housebuilders and estate agents and the upsurge in house-building activity means we are doing many more hoardings.”
The Birmingham company also recently won a major contract with a leading high-street fast-food retailer, increasing its need to boost output capabilities on sheetfed substrates.
Hollywood Monster claims to be the largest sign and display contractor in the Birmingham area, supplying blue-chip customers nationwide, also from the sport, television and theatre sectors.
“The 2m-wide H2000 Pro is the ideal size for ongoing and future application requirements,” he said of the machine, supplied and installed by Shrewsbury-based specialist CMYUK.
This is the third EFI wide-format platform the company has invested in in as many years, the others are a Vutek GS3250 and a 5m Vutek GS5000r.
The company also has two 5m-wide HP Expedio roll-to-roll machines and a 3.2m-wide direct-to-textile Mtex 5032 dye-sublimation machine.
70-staff Hollywood Monster has a turnover of £7.5m but expects to bump that up to £9m in 18 months with the assistance of the new Vutek machine.
“Our company produces a vast range of jobs up to 5m in width using roll-fed, rigid and textile materials. We make full use of our Vutek GS3250 3.2m combination flat-bed and roll-fed printer.
“But we made the decision to invest in a 2m-wide machine primarily to handle board production in this burgeoning display segment.”
Key to the addition of the new Vutek H2000 Pro was its ability to dovetail workflow with applications produced on Hollywood Monster’s existing wide-format machines from EFI, he said.
The EFI Vutek H2000 Pro is a modular six-colour 2m-wide UV-curable wide-format printer that incorporates 7 picolitre UltraDrop technology elements.
The machine's flat-bed capabilities are boosted with an option for roll-to-roll production while white ink and clear varnish are available in both single- or dual-channel configurations.
McKenzie added: “We work very closely with CMYUK; it's a great working relationship, which is important in giving us reassurance when buying new machinery.”
CMYUK director Robin East added: “We pride ourselves on being able to make sure that results are identical, regardless of Vutek platform.”
