The press will be installed alongside an existing HP Indigo 7600 and a 7500 sheetfed digital presses at the CPI’s commercial print wing’s 8,360sqm Croydon site and follows on from a new six-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 and new Kodak Prinergy pre-press and colour management software and workflow bought at the end of last year.
CPI Colour managing director Alison Kaye said the company has settled on the HP digital press after a thorough review of alternative options.
“The Indigo was the most suited to our needs in terms of delivery and what our clients have been talking to us about and what we needed,” she told PrintWeek.
The company plans to use the press to push forward with its variable data services, to service customers alongside its complementary litho capacity.
CPI Colours’ new cloud based W2P and warehouse management service - CPI YourWay allows clients to personalise and order digital print on-line via a client branded platform.
Kaye explained that the software had a choice of six templates of marketing collateral which would allow clients with multiple outlets to create variable data products which retain brand integrity.
“It allows staff to order any marketing collateral which is designed for that brand but which has personalised data, from business cards to posters. We’re almost creating an online catalogue for them,” she said.
127-staff CPI Colour services a variety of clients, particularly in financial services and retail. Kaye said retailers were particularly interested in this type of marketing.
In November she said her plan was to grow sales by 50% in two years.
She said this week that the company was aiming at “sustainable, substantial growth” to its £19m turnover, which it intends to do by selling extra services to existing clients. Thus it has also created a POS sales team, CPI Connect to deliver more depth, with wide-format print currently outsourced.
She said CPI Colour had already seen significant success in designing, project managing and delivering exhibition products. The financial services team has also been expanded. Six new sales staff have joined in the past six months.
Kaye added: “A lot of our investment has been on added value services from us, from W2P to distribution services. We’ve been developing our direct mail offering and fulfilment.
"Investing in variable print is supporting our customers across the board.”
CPI Colour is part of six-location CPI UK which manufactures 160 million books every year, has a turnover of more than £100m and employs around 1,000 staff.
The Croydon facility also runs two six-colour B1 presses with coaters, a 12-colour B1 perfector and an eight-colour B1 with coater as well as six further four- and six-colour B2 presses.
