Last month the Mitcham-based family-owned printer took delivery of a Ricoh Pro C9210 digital production printer, bought direct from the manufacturer, and a Horizon SPF/FC-200L A4 Landscape bookletmaker, supplied by Intelligent Finishing Systems (IFS).
It also installed a secondhand Heidelberg Suprasetter A74 platesetter, which it purchased from International Graphic Supplies, and has upgraded its pre-press software to Heidelberg’s Prinect system.
The C9210, which prints up to 135 A4ppm, can take a banner size of 1,030mm in duplex and 1,260mm in simplex on substrates up to 450gsm. An automatic inline calibration system maintains colour consistency and stability.
The machine will be run alongside Positive’s existing HP Indigo 5500. The business also operates a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 75 and two older Heidelberg litho presses, four Roland DG wide-format printers and a wide array of direct mail and finishing kit.
Positive Images UK production director Mike Sullivan said: “The Ricoh Pro C9210 will make short runs of A4 landscape brochures much more cost-effective and there will be a lot less material wastage.”
Managing director Danny Sullivan added: “We saw that the Ricoh technology had caught up with the Indigo technology and we just needed additional presses. So we’re testing it out and if it goes well then we’ll be introducing more presses as we go through the next 12 months.
“Our operators are very happy with it because they are not having to spend as much time as they were making ready on the Indigo. It’s sped up our production massively – we’ve seen a real uptake in being able to turn the work around quicker from job to job.”
The company had also looked at alternatives from Xerox when considering its press spend, and Duplo before deciding on which bookletmaker to buy, ultimately opting for the Horizon machine due to its sturdy build.
“We have done bookletmaking before but more on our [Heidelberg Stitchmaster] ST 100, which is for litho. This is more dedicated to the digital market,” said Danny Sullivan.
“We’ve had more requests for this sort of work, but we also needed to keep up with speed. We’ve been very happy with this machine so far.”
Positive Images UK, which turned 25 in August, provides a range of design, print, direct mail and marketing services for clients in the retail, media, financial, charity, cosmetics and health and wellbeing sectors.
Employing 23 staff and turning over £2m, the company operates from a leased 2,300sqm factory in Surrey and also has a London sales office.
In 2016 the company achieved ISO 27001:2013 data security accreditation and invested in a Cygnus data cleansing and processing suite and last year it launched a new multichannel service.
