Charles O’Brien, managing director of the family firm, said the main driver for the spend was the faster turnarounds offered by the new machine, which had enabled it to offer a next day service, which he said had “made a massive difference”.
The Glasgow business installed the 1.6m-wide Roland TrueVis VG2-640 in early June. The circa £15,000 printer was bought from reseller Quality Print Services (QPS), with part of the investment offset by Source trading in its old Roland, which it bought used five-years ago, under the VersaCamm scrappage scheme.
According to project manager Ryan Tardiff the key benefit of upgrading to the new eight-colour TrueVis has been the impact on productivity.“The speed has been the highlight, the gassing out is quicker as well, we can just leave it for six hours now,” he said.
The six-staff firm produces a wide-range of graphics, from signage to banners and vehicle wraps, for clients typically in the construction industry, although it is increasingly being called upon to support retailers as they reopen.
At the beginning of lockdown the firm furloughed all its staff, but as construction sites reopened staff started to return from May, with four staff now working, two full-time, two part-time.
“Covid-19 has given us tonnes of work,” said Tardiff.
“We specialise in health & safety, construction management work, as you can imagine with new policies announced every day there’s always things that need updating and the sites are pushing to reopen.”
As well as the new TrueVis, the firm runs a Mimaki as a back-up printer and also a Graphtec cutter.
