The group brought the machine in last month for an undisclosed fee, replacing a seven-year-old iGen 3, and installing it in its main 2,800sqm digital printing site, where it joins an iGen 4.
Managing director Mark Willson said that after a solid evaluation of the market, including a consideration of HP Indigo technology, he chose to stick with the Xerox technology that he was familiar with.
“The iGen 5 was the most competitive machine and we felt we needed to move before currency made things considerably more expensive,” he said.
“What swung it for us was that we have recently won a lot of extra work and we were considering going for an iGen 4 again, but it was the speed and the extra volume of the iGen 5 that did it.
“The increase in quality is good but if I’m honest none of our customers were complaining about the quality from the iGen 3 so that tends to be something that the trade notices rather than the end-user.”
The 150ppm iGen 5 has a resolution of 2,400dpi and can handle coated, uncoated, textured and speciality stocks of 50gsm to 350gsm at 364x660mm maximum size. It is the first Xerox digital press to have an optional fifth colour (orange, blue or green), giving the company a wider colour gamut that Willson said was a factor in his interest in the new machine. Willsons will soon be configuring the machine with a white ink option.
“I imagine it will increase capacity in the long term and I think we anticipate it making us more competitive, which is what most of our customers want,” Willson added.
“With digital machinery it’s all about operating costs. With litho you could play with your figures and depreciations and what you were getting back but digital is what you pay for that month. It’s always the same rather than having long-term finance to play with.”
70-staff Willsons has a second site in Grimsby for forms printing, along with its Nottingham-based Pyramid Press arm, which last year invested in a new Speedmaster XL 75, replacing an older Speedmaster. Group turnover is around £8m. The Newark site also runs a large-format Canon machine and finishing equipment.
