The circa-£400,000 investment, delivered last month by UK distributor CMYUK Digital, is the sixth super-wide printer to be installed at the Tyseley, Birmingham-based operation but the first to offer eight colours, plus white capability. Other devices at the site include two 5m-wide HP Expedio roll-to-roll machines, a Vutek GS3200, a Mimaki JV33 and an HP Latex machine.
The EFI Vutek GS5000r offers outdoor quality output at speeds of up to 288sqm/h and high definition POP quality output at up to 96sqm/h, with dual resolution of 600dpi or 1,000dpi and eight colours plus optional three-layer white imaging.
“Our other machines are all four-colour devices and quite a lot slower so this will really help us to expand our POS and retail market work much more. Our existing machines are great for 90% of the work we do like large banner graphics for exhibitions and outdoor work, but they can’t do this super high quality, high-resolution eight-colour work,” said Hollywood Monster director Simon McKenzie.
He added: “It’s fast, versatile and incredible quality. One of the best pieces of equipment we’ve ever bought.”
McKenzie said that with strong growth in the firm’s retail work he was forecasting turnover of £7m in 2014 compared to £6.2m last year. This will be boosted, he said, by its contract with Westfield Shopping Centres, which is worth around £1m per year, who are set to build two new malls this year in Croydon and Bradford.
“Around 30% of what we do is actually retail now, whereas four years ago it was nearer 10%. It’s growing year-on-year and I don’t see that stopping especially with the work from Westfield. When their portfolio grows then so does ours and that is on top of our other clients like Virgin and M&S,” he added.
The Vutek investment follows a £250,000 spend, last November, on a 3.2m-wide direct-to-textile MTEX 5032 marking the company’s first move into dye sublimation printing.
“The margins are so high, around 65%-70%, which is very enjoyable to see compared to the traditional 45%-50% gross margin. It’s inspiring and it’s an area for us that is really growing because more and more of our retail clients are asking us for dye sub work. There’s no looking back.”
McKenzie said that because the machine was set to reach capacity fairly soon, he intended to invest in a new one by September this year which would be housed in a purpose-built room, created for the firm’s new dye-sub division, that he said had room for three machines.
The company has also this week completed a 743sqm extension to its factory for dispatch and quality control that McKenzie said “has helped to create a bit more of an organised workflow".
