The company will distri-bute and service the HP Indigo R1000 and 1050, and thereby joins both Danwood and Irish-based Typetec as HP distributors.

"Going forward, we will look for one more channel partner," said HP Indigo UK and Ireland country manager Adrian Stark. "It is an important part of our strategy."

Stark added that The Digital People will offer HP a route into the copy shop and quick printer market. "We are getting into more markets by using the specialisation and expertise of our channel partners," he explained. "They very much complement the work that our direct sales force is doing."

A laminating machine manufactured by K2 Systems for the digital print market has also been launched by The Digital People.

The Chessington-based firm is the sole UK distributor of the Digicoater Premier, which debuted at last week's Digital Print World exhibition at Earls Court Two.

Digicoater Premier is a UV coating system specifically for digital print. It laminates substrates in one pass, and is capable of spot and continuous coating. It handles a maximum paper size of 52x77cm, with substrates, ranging from 30gsm to board stock.

Shipping of the Digicoater Premier will begin in January.

"We finished Digital Print World with around 300 well-qualified leads," said The Digital People UK managing director David Knowles.