Prontaprint took delivery of a Versant 280 press and PrimeLink C9065 colour printer on 11 October, squeezing both machines through the front doorway of the building with milimetres to spare.
“We had to take the front door off to get them in – it’s a conservation area around here, so you can’t really just go knocking out the front window,” James Taylor-Nye, the new owner of Prontaprint London, told Printweek.
Replacing a seven-year-old Versant 80 and Colour C60 respectively, the new machines have upgraded the firm’s capabilities with faster print speeds, higher quality, and smoother processes, like being able to print 350gsm stocks duplex without having to run them through twice.
“They just make it a little bit faster for the customer, and for us. We’re also able to be a little more precise and involved with the custom stock settings, which should help us out: you can actually change the speed and temperature, so you’re getting better prints,” he said.
Taylor-Nye bought out the business in early September, from previous owner Peter Donaldson, with whom he had worked for 27 years.
Donaldson, who retired after 40 years’ ownership of the shop, continues to advise Taylor-Nye to ensure a smooth transition from managing the store’s design and day-to-day running, to running the business as a whole.
“It’s very strange for me, as I’ve been the designer for a long time. It’s a big step up, and a big learning curve, but we seem to be getting there,” Taylor-Nye said.
“The good thing is, customers know me very well – it’s certainly a smooth evolution, rather than revolution.”
The business has been in Marylebone since Donaldson founded it 40 years ago, and Taylor-Nye said he wants to keep it a local affair.
“We want to do more in the community, because we really are a local printer,” he said.
“We have real people in a real shop on the high street, we’re not a faceless internet store where you don’t interact with anyone. We can actually talk to and meet our customers, and it’s a really nice area of London to work in.”
The company, which employs five, prints both B2B and retail, with a pair of wide-format machines – a 12-colour Canon ImagePrograf Pro-2600 fine art printer, and an HP Latex 315 – taking care of banner, poster, and art reproduction.
“October has been really good. So far, we’ve been above last year, and hopefully that will power on into November.”
