And yet Geoff Rawlings, now managing director at large-format printer Best Digital, considers himself very fortunate that a troublesome machine was giving him reliability issues back in 1998, when he was owner of Future Images. Had it not, Rawlings would never have been referred by the manufacturer to get his work printed by Millharbour Digital while his own machine was down. And then he may never have met future business partner Danny Colgate.
"I got to know him through that, and gave him a bit of work through Augustus Martin when I was working there as well, and stayed in contact with him over the years," says Rawlings, reporting that this eventually led to the duo going into business together 10 years later, in 2008.
And the pair have, over the past four years, proved something of a dream team. Today, Best Digital boasts a turnover around the £1.7m mark, eight staff and a 930sqm premises in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, which the company moved into last year.
The latest chapter in the Best story is one heralding yet more growth. Keen to expand still further, Rawlings and Colgate decided, early last year, it was time to spend some serious money to complement the firm’s line-up of two Zünd 250 Combis and a six-colour HP DesignJet 9000.
"It had to be something that would make us more competitive and the way to be more competitive is obviously increased speed, because you can put more work through," says Rawlings.
With speed the key consideration, Rawlings and Colgate set to work putting the qualifying wide-format machines through their paces. Rawlings wasn’t content with impressive spec sheets; the proof, he knew, would be in the printing.
"We looked at Vutek, HP, Agfa, Jetrix, pretty much most of the market," he says, reporting that taking along a stopwatch to demos is often the only way of really working out if speed claims will hold true in live-job situations. "It was really getting the right speed at the right quality, and there were several machines out there that weren’t the right speed and the right quality," adds Rawlings.
In the end, the printer most impressing Best on these counts, was Screen’s new Truepress Jet W1632UV, launched at Drupa. "When you put it up against other machines, what it said it would do, it did," says Rawlings. "Whereas with others, the manufacturer says it’ll run at 300sqm an hour, but that’s only in a draft mode or in an unsellable mode. But all the modes on this machine are sellable, they’re just different applications."
Trial run
But, with the installation of the printer in August last year, the testing process wasn’t quite over. As the first Truepress user, Best wanted to be doubly sure the printer would deliver. So the company agreed with Screen to a six-month trial period.
"We weren’t a beta site, we were the first adopter; they’d pretty much tested the machine to where it needed to be, it was fully ready and completed, but we still wanted a trial," says Rawlings.
"We put it through its paces with different materials, different speeds, different settings, we put different jobs through it with Foamex sheets, hoarding panels and window graphics," he continues, reporting that the machine is set up so work comes straight off the Truepress to be directed either to Best’s Kongsberg i-XL24 digital cutter or 2,200mm UV liquid laminator.
The results, reports Rawlings, were very impressive, with the firm more than happy to sign off on the machine last December.
The machine’s 12pl droplet printheads and ‘apparent’ resolution of 1,200dpi mean Best can now offer smaller formats than previously, explains Rawlings. "Because of the nature of the fine quality we can now print a lot smaller jobs, so we can print more very small stickers and shelf strips with very clear text, so it takes us into new markets," he says.
Then there’s the new markets opened up by the printer’s impressive speeds (the Truepress’s top speed output is 94sqm/hr on media up to 1,600x3,200mm, with a maximum thickness of 48mm). "We’ve been able to take on new customers by being able to compete with the larger firms on medium-length to long runs," reports Rawlings. "I think our average run for cinema displays would have been about 50 on our other machines, but now we’re taking on runs of up to 300 or 500 sheets."
"On a recent job, we produced about 2,500 A3 5mm Foamex panels in about eight hours of printing time, whereas on our old machine it would have taken about five days, and we’d never have been competitive on that," he adds.
All in all, then, the Truepress has boosted Best’s turnover by easily around 50%, says Rawlings – and this while allowing the firm to in fact drop a night shift and revert to a five-day, eight-hour shift routine.
Problem-free production
Achieving such a significant boost has been aided in no small part by the reliability of the machine. Despite Best being the first user of the printer, it has experienced very few service issues, says Rawlings.
"The first user tends to have all the problems and the second user tends to have all the problems ironed out. But that wasn’t the case here," he says. "That’s because it was basically a revamped Inca Spyder – it had the same chassis, but the Japanese took it and worked out different heads and motors and just made it more reliable, faster and I think that’s where the reliability comes from because although it was the first machine it was a proven chassis."
The only slight hitches Best experienced were software glitches. But these were resolved speedily with software upgrades.
"Inca is in Cambridge, which isn’t far from our offices, and Screen is in Luton, so we’re sandwiched between the manufacture and service provider, which is handy," says Rawlings of how on-the-ball both companies have been service support-wise. "You’ve got the back-up, you’re not waiting for a guy with parts. Parts are stored in Cambridge, so you’re not three days without the machine if it breaks down."
And should any printhead issues occur, Rawlings is confident that the clever design of the Truepress will save him serious money. "One good thing is that rather than replace a whole block of heads you can replace a slice of heads," says Rawlings. "That’s a cost-effective way of doing it- before you’d have had to replace a whole head, worth perhaps £30,000."
One slight dissatisfaction Rawlings has with his new machine, however, is that the Jet W1632UV doesn’t have a white channel and, due to there not be being enough room in the head carriage, can’t be upgraded to have one.
But this isn’t a huge issue for Best. So pleased is Rawlings with his experience of Screen, Inca and his new Truepress, that he plans to install a new Truepress Jet2500 hybrid printer, launched at Fespa 2013.
"This is different from the other Truepress because it prints white, and also it’s even finer quality so you can do very, very fine stuff which is good for glass, so products like window manifestations," says Rawlings. "You can do seven-layer printing as well. That’s for back-to-back window manifestations where you put down white and the other six colours on top."
And so, with another Truepress in the pipeline, Best doesn’t look set to take its eye off future growth any time soon. An inspirational message for all, then: never discount a chance meeting with an industry peer. You never know what exciting opportunities might come of it in the future.
SPECIFICATIONS
Max media size 1,600x3,200mm
Max output size 1,600x3,200mm
Max media thickness 48mm
Printhead Piezo on-demand
Resolution 900dpi (apparent 1,200dpi)
Inks Standard: CMYK Truepress inks; optional: CMYK plus LC and LM
Footprint 3.5x5.2m
Weight 2,500kg
Price List price: £219,000
Contact Screen 01582 725400 www.screeneurope.com
Company profile
Best Digital was established by managing director Geoff Rawlings and director Danny Colgate in 2008. Rawlings describes Best’s market position as "in the niche between small digital companies with ‘print and mount’ facilities and the major POS suppliers". The company has a turnover of around £1.7m and eight staff. It’s strapline is: ‘Large format, direct to almost everything’. As well as the Truepress Jet, the firm’s kit list includes two Zünd 250 Combis, an HP DesignJet 9000 six-colour printer, a Kongsberg i-XL24 digital cutter and a BeDigital 2,200mm UV liquid laminator.
Why it was bought…
Best decided to become the first adopter of Screen’s Truepress Jet W1632UV, launched at Drupa, to boost production. The company chose this press after rigorous testing of this and competitor machines from Vutek, HP, Agfa and Jetrix.
How it has performed…
"It’s done exactly what it said it would do," reports Rawlings. The machine delivering on speed has meant Best has been able to boost production, taking on more mid to long run-length jobs while also dropping a night shift.
