After getting an early peek at the machine at Drupa, the City of London-based firm was identified as a suitable site to trial the new machine via Xerox reseller ROI.

"The 6060 was a step above the 2045 and we've found the 8000 addressed more issues," said Kingswood Steele managing director Andy Steele. "There's two main things, it's as fast as it claims and more reliable, significantly so."

He added that as a short run specialist producing runs of 10-1,000 he couldn't see any other digital press on the horizon that could touch the 8000, not even Xerox's own top of the range iGen3. "We'd be better off with two 8000s," he said.

Improved stability and reduced engineer call-outs were highlighted by Steele. "Engineer calls have been halved," he said. "All Xerox machines are capable of excellent results, it's keeping them there, the 8000 does that."

The firm, which also runs DocuColor 12, 5252 and 6060 machines, is about to move to new premises in Worship Street EC2, doubling its size to 350m2.  This follows the expansion this year of its finishing department and a move into mailing and fulfilment. The 11-staff firm is aiming for sales of 1.2m this year.

ROI, which is showing the DocuColor 8000 at DPW next week, claims to have "three red hot prospects" for the machine. Its other star attraction at the show will be a new deal with Creo. It is the first firm to provide JDF links into Creo's Spire front-end via its Xralle e-procurement system.

Story by Barney Cox