The new UJF 6042 MkII e, nicknamed 'Mr Grey' and installed in March, takes Manta up to three Mimaki printers, and rounds off a five-year relationship with supplier CMYUK.

'Mr Grey' joins its sister printers the UJF-6042 and UJF-604 MkII - all A2 sized - at Manta’s 740sqm site in Ringwood on the edge of the New Forest. Launched last year, it can print onto cylinders, wayfinding, phone cases, packaging, signage and promotional products up to 153mm thick.

Managing director Samantha Riley, who founded the business with husband Paul, said they had decided to invest in the latest Mimaki to give the other two machines a little more slack, as they were running well into overtime every day to handle demand.

She added that this year’s 130% tax relief on plant and machinery had helped cement the decision.

“I thought of all the places we’d saved [money] from the machines we bought last year, and thought we could invest more in machines, and then we wouldn’t have to pay out on the overtime,” she said, adding “all three run all day, every day”.

Manta started off life in 2015 as an online ‘fairy door’ manufacturer, making the garden decorations with an A4 Trotec Rayjet laser engraver from the couple's dining room, a “tiny little machine,” which Samantha and Paul bought reconditioned for £8,000.

“For us, that was a lot of money,” she said.

Now, however, Manta employs 24, including recently hired general manager Dave Melbourne, who has worked 16 years in the print industry and joined Manta in March.

This expertise, she said, will be particularly valuable for Manta’s expansion into paper and card-based printing.

While Manta does most of its printing onto walnut wood - and its engraving in oak - earlier in 2022 the business set up its own print room, complete with a Ricoh Pro C7200X digital printer, a Morgana Digifold Pro XL folder, a Polar guillotine, and a Vivid Matrix MX-530P foiler to expand its wedding offering further.

While that part of the business is in early stages, Samantha said, she is keen to expand it.

She added that given their entrepreneurial beginnings, the couple has no problems in approaching something new.

“At the beginning people were doubtful that we would succeed because we didn’t really have a clue, and certainly didn’t appear to have much business acumen but we’ve proved the doubters wrong. 

“We’re relentless people, and if we can’t work out how to do something, we just keep going until we can.”