Arriving today (14 October), the press will replace the company’s seven-year-old Indigo 10000 press, slotting into production with the same B2 format.
The old press is being put up for sale privately.
“The bulk of our work is campaign-driven activity. We do a lot of commercial print like larger scale menus, posters, A4 brochures, oversized folders and other product merchandising and retail POS. This basically allows us to select the most efficient way to run a campaign where there are multiple variations, price points and other variables,” said Andy Hughes, sales director at Stirland Paterson.
The 15k, he told Printweek, would be a real boost to the company’s mailing business.
“We’re heavily involved in the DM market, and one of the reasons we’ve gone with the HP is because we do a lot of personalisation through the Indigo,” he said.
“It’s often the case that we’ll die-cut and glue those pieces into a fully-fledged direct mail project – essentially, we’re controlling the workflow and data throughout the whole business.”
He added that familiarity with the system was a bonus: “We’ve always had Indigo. It’s our third straight Indigo machine, and we know how it works; we know the maintenance; our staff are trained.
“When we were looking at presses, it was a no-brainer,” Hughes said.
The 15k can handle up to 3,450sph at 4/0, printing 8-bit at 812dpi for a virtual resolution of 2,438x2,438dpi.
Stirland Paterson has opted for a model fitted with the Thick Substrate Kit, enabling the 15k to handle materials up to 600 microns.
“That step up to 600 microns is going to make all the difference, as we look at short-run product packaging, sleeves, pillow boxes, STEs and those types of products,” said Hughes.
Digital work makes up around 10% of Stirland Paterson’s business, with litho taken up by a pair of Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 105 B1 five-colour presses; with new capabilities in short-run packaging, there is potential for organic growth in the firm’s digital department.
“We expect that actual job value will increase with the new press; we’ve got more control over what we’re doing,” Hughes said.
Stirland Paterson has just closed its financial year on just over £14m, a bumper year for the firm.
“The market is always challenging, but this has been our record year [for sales] since the business started 28 years ago,” Hughes said.
“We’ve had a breadth of new clients, and the main thing is that we have kept our current customers happy. We’ve had nine new starters since July, too – it’s been a hugely exciting period for us.”
The company now employs 84 at its site just west of Nottingham in Ilkeston.
“If we can replicate what we’ve done in the last 12 months, and continue to grow organically, I’ll be very happy,” he said.
