The 23-staff outfit installed the 2m-wide EFI Vutek GS2000 LX Pro into its Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland premises just shy of a month ago, and has had it up-and-running for around three weeks, taking out a five-year-old HP Scitex FB500 as part of a five-year replacement cycle. 

Managing director Sarah McMorn said the decision to opt for Fantasy's first large-format EFI machine came after a trip to Brussels organised by UK-based wide-format kit reseller CMYUK, which supplied the machine.

McMorn said: “Back in 2016 we got an invite from CMYUK to go and see one of the machines they were launching in Brussels and when my two colleague’s came back they taught me the new and exciting stuff it can do.

“We then had several meetings with CMYUK and they did a presentation showing that it would be very beneficial to the company and that because it’s environmentally friendly it would cut costs on overheads.”

Suitable for the likes of banners, exhibition graphics and signage, the LED-UV hybrid Vutek comes with greyscale technology for higher quality and prints at up to 186sqm/hr in Fast-4 mode, with Fantasy’s machine running CMYK plus white. It can handle a range of sheetfed media at widths of up to 2m and thickness of up to 5m, running off a Fiery XF production digital front-end with colour management workflow. 

McMorn added: “The speed and the quality of the print are most impressive, and how it can go down to four points. We can do larger prints as well now. It is much faster so generates more business because then we can take on more capacity.” 

CMYUK director Robin East said that the investment confirmed Fantasy as “the modern face of printing in the UK”. The 23-staff outfit also runs two HP Latex machines, a Xerox Versant 2100 and a variety of finishing kit.