The in-house print department looks after the firm’s labelling, warehouse signage and POS work and mocks up packaging, with its 10 staff split across two shifts to cover Next’s 24/7 print needs.

The Veloblade Nexus, installed over the summer along with the Zip Core Packaging Suite, has transformed the team’s capabilities after replacing a Comagrav machine that had come to the end of its life.

Finding that the aging cutter would go down for days – or even a week – at a time before support brought it back online, Next needed reliability above all else.

The cutter also had to be simple to operate, cut a variety of materials, and be able to rout – so the team approached Ricoh, which has supplied the team for four years.

Stephen Clarke, print services manager at Next, said the Veloblade's consistent high performance allowed the team to explore a variety of new applications.

He said: “Vivid's support is truly deserving of a 5-star rating; they consistently go above and beyond to ensure we have the best support when operating.

“This level of support is truly invaluable to us. Since partnering with Vivid, our experience has been nothing short of fantastic.”

The cutter, bought through Ricoh, has joined Next’s existing stable of Ricoh kit, including T7210 and TS6251 flatbeds and a latex roll-to-roll model.

The team also runs sheetfed work through a C9210 digital press, which it uses for a variety of outputs including box sleeves for the retailer’s beauty product department.

Clarke added that the ability to send a 3D virtual CAD of a packaging project with the Zip suite, rather than creating a physical sample, has saved the team “an incredible amount of time.”

“The Veloblade has demonstrated its precision, speed, and clean-cut performance, surpassing all our previous experiences with other brands. 

“This has given us the confidence to take full control of in-house production."