The 75m/min device, which went live at the firm’s 7,000sqm Redruth, Cornwall facility in January along with new Lasermax unwinder/rewinder and dynamic perforation equipment, will replace work produced on its existing toner-based continuous mono Océ VarioStream.
Managing director Tony Plummer said the ColorStream, the eighth such device to be installed across Stralfors’ global sites, would not only give its customers a more cost-effective white-paper solution, but deliver a higher print quality and also enable the company to offer full-colour targeted promotional inserts inline with their prime documents.
“We have had continuous colour capability from Xerox for more than three years but it’s toner and we realised that the market was really after inkjet from a quality and cost perspective, so we’ll be migrating work across from the Xerox and the mono,” he explained.
“It means our customers can now use the quality of the colour inkjet to start putting their inserts inline with their invoices or bills. They can target the inserts, personalise them and refer to them as part of the primary communication, which is far more efficient for them. It helps them reduce pre-printed stock wastage, vary content and design of printed materials, and use empty space for marketing content,” he added.
Plummer said that as a result of the ColorStream line investment, which totaled around £1m, the business intends to upgrade its mailing equipment later in the year, to keep pace.
“We’re printing more pages so we need equipment that can collate and fold more quickly. It’s under discussion now and there is an investment plan that will take us up to a spend of about £2m this year as we supplement the new equipment we have,” he said.
Originally a business forms printer, Stralfors UK’s pre-printed forms are now mainly provided by the group’s Nordic and Polish operations, while the UK specialises in digital targeted transactional and direct mailing for businesses within the financial services sector, retail and utilities firms and government divisions.
Plummer said that as a result of its investments he anticipated a growth in volumes of around 20%-25% this year, boosted by two major new contract wins in the utilities and debt management sectors that are going live over the next month.
Stralfors UK generates around £20m of Stralfors' £300m global turnover, with a 3,300sqm plant in Dartford, Kent as well as its Redruth facility.
