The machines were supplied by wide-format supplier Perfect Colours.
101 of these stores replaced its 610mm-wide HP DesignJet Z2100 with a 1m-wide HP DesignJet Z6200, doubling the width of its printed offering and the speed the machines can print at. Six of the stores have had the new DesignJet installed over the last couple of years as a pilot.
72 of the stores replaced their Xerox 6204 black-and-white printer with a 1.4m-wide HP DesignJet T3500 and the other 35 replaced it with a 910mm-wide HP DesignJet T830. This allows Staples to copy, scan and print in colour and expands output potential from A1 to A0 on large banners and colour posters.
Matt Plumridge, Staples' head of operations, UK copy and print, said the timing of the release of the DesignJet T830 was perfect, as initially these stores were only going to receive standalone scanners. Staples has also had one installed in its head office in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire.
The job took seven weeks, meaning four upgraded stores a day spanning the entire width of the country. Perfect Colours' corporate sales account manager Sally Fletcher was in charge of the 16,000-mile round trip.
She said: “It was a crazy rollout because there were two engineers and me. Staples have 107 stores, from Aberdeen to the Isle of Wight, over in Wales and down to Ashford in Kent. To get it done with two machines per store within seven weeks was quite a massive feat.”
Fletcher said the Peckham, London-based supplier, which has been working with Staples for the last seven years, expected the task to be tough from the beginning. A more comfortable ask would have been 12 weeks, but Staples wanted to get colour printers in as quickly as possible.
Fletcher was joined by two Perfect Colours service and installation engineers, James Webster and Adam Chamberlain.
Each store had the two pre-built printers dropped off a couple of days before they were due to be fitted and then sent by a local haulage company to the store. Once in the store, Fletcher and one of the engineers would need to take away the old machines, put in the new ones, fix up the software, train staff to use the new printers and bring in an A1 trimmer.
Fletcher found managing the logistics of the task difficult at first. She said: “We were in Glasgow and Aberdeen on the first Friday afternoon realising we had to drive back down to Nottingham, Colchester, and then Kent, so the first week we did Scotland and the north and that indicates the sheer logistical challenge of trying to keep on time with that. My planning on week one was a bit more challenging.”
“We had to grab the Isle of Wight printers from the west coast and take them over on the ferry. I was seasick twice,” she added.
Plumridge said: "From a teamwork point of view, Perfect Colours is very dedicated to the Staples business and very organised. They are also a very professional team and also have a huge amount of experience working with Staples, including all our IT team, and have good relationships. That is critical when you want to roll out 215 machines in seven weeks."
He added that Staples will engage Perfect Colours again for a second round of training in its stores on the new printers. Perfect Colours is also providing support for a review on the software Staples uses with its wide-format printers.
Last year, Perfect Colours partnered with EFI to supply two hybrid wide-format printers in the UK, the H1625 LED and Vutek H2000 Pro.
Perfect Colours' sales director Jon Telling said the £18m-turnover supplier is projected to increase turnover by £6m to £24m in 2016, with growth coming from elsewhere as well as the Staples deal. According to Telling, it is now the only wide-format supplier in the EMEA that is an HP Platinum Partner.
It employs 78 staff, including 14 engineers, in offices throughout the UK, including in Derbyshire, Bristol and Manchester.
