The machine was delivered to Pureprint’s newly upgraded 2,800sqm dedicated digital site in Uckfield, East Sussex, at the end of last week. It will join two existing HP Indigo 10000s, which will be upgraded to 12000s at the end of this year.
The other UK company currently beta testing the Indigo is Precision Printing, which recently announced it will be moving to a larger premises in early 2017.
Pureprint was granted a a £5.3m investment from the Business Growth Fund in January 2015, which has been put towards investment in the Uckfield site. Its litho and digital facilities have now been split into two different units and both are now fully operational.
Chief executive Mark Handford said: “We did the beta testing on the 10000s as well and HP are always very keen for us to be involved in new press beta sites because, if you look at the majority of its sites, they tend to be photo-based products but not lots of different substrates. We tend to bend the rules and do R&D around lots of different substrates.”
Handford was approached by HP and signed for the new Indigo at Drupa, when it was launched. Apart from finding a number of beta sites, HP was successful in selling around 50 of the machines at the show.
“We have had a lot of success with the 10000s. We were looking at putting in a third 10000 as well but this is an upgraded 10000, with the most important thing being the One Shot technology for printing on lots of substrates and also an in-built coating mechanism,” said Handford.
The Indigo can print at speeds of up to 4,600sph at a resolution of 2438dpi. It takes sheet size of up to 740x510mm and prints in CMYK.
Pureprint's 7,500sqm dedicated litho site now houses four Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106s, two of which were purchased last November and installed last Monday. It also houses newly installed pre-press offerings, including a Magnus platesetter and Prinergy workflow.
Handford said the pre-press facilities are integral to the newly-developed litho site.
He said: “We used to have platemaking in one location, and presses in three locations, so were forever having vehicles driving around with paper on board. Now we have a workflow where paper comes in one door and product goes in through the press and out the other door.
“People have to embrace change this year because it is a changing world out there. The speed people want things in and the types of projects in terms of personalisation, it has been a real step in the last six to 12 months.”
Pureprint now has a total of more than 400 staff, 250 on the Uckfield digital and litho sites, 130 in its Newcastle-based Imprint business and a number spread around local offices.
It is on course to reach its projected £65m turnover target, an increase of approximately 10% on last year’s sales.
