The firm has made the investment to make faster colour prints accessible to its customers in the design and construction sectors and the graphics industry.

It also hopes that the speed and quality of the printer, which will be installed at the end of May, will take it into previously untested markets.

“From a productivity point of view I expect it to have a massive impact. We will be equipped to keep our clients serviced speedily and efficiently with the up-to-date technology,” said sales and marketing director John Foy.

“We’re starting to do more POS and retail-type work and we expect to be able to handle more of that with the ColorWave 900.”

The 42in-wide ColorWave 900 has a print speed of up to 1,100sqm/hr. It has a six media-roll capacity with an input capacity of 1,200m, 200m/roll.

Online Reprographics has a long-standing relationship with Canon, formerly with Océ. For the past five years the company has operated two ColorWave 600 machines and is now upgrading to the ColorWave 900. 

“We looked at alternatives but our choice was based mostly on the trust and experience that we have with Canon. We’ve always trusted them from a service and engineering point of view and felt that they were the right fit, especially to come into something as new as this,” said Foy.

The firm, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary this month, currently employs 18 people and has a turnover of £1.5m.

It had planned the investment in advance and made the purchase on-stand at Sign & Digital UK last week in Birmingham. Other investments are also planned for the near future.

“We’re currently looking across our inkjet range and we’ve invested in new web-to-print software which is currently in the process of being launched. That will hopefully go hand in hand with being able to do more posters and POS as we lean to a more web-based offering,” said Foy.