Chief executive John Mills said the Cambridge-headquartered business was flexing its manufacturing facilities to meet demand.
“We had a huge amount of orders at the show, and running up to it – we’ve had almost the same number of orders in the first two-and-a-half months of our financial year that you would normally expect in six-to-seven months,” he stated.
Mills said that some customers had been holding off until they’d seen what was on show at Drupa.
“Now they’ve seen what they need to see, and they’re ready to buy. The X3’s ability to do 180 beds an hour puts a lot of daylight between ourselves and the competition. It’s double the speed in terms of day-to-day operation.”
Mills said the 900sqm/hour Onset X3 was actually capable of running at 225 beds per hour. “We wanted it to be the first machine that actually runs faster than the advertised speed!” he quipped.
The company, which is owned by Screen's Graphic & Precision Solutions division, has taken on around 20 new staff, and has doubled its production capacity through a lean manufacturing project. It had geared up for potentially increased demand after the Onset X3’s launch in autumn 2015.
“We had anticipated it a bit, and the lean project has reduced build time and given us more capacity,” Mills explained.
Fujifilm, the exclusive sales channel for the Onset, booked orders from all around the world at Drupa, including three Onset X3s for London large-format print specialist Augustus Martin.
Mills said that Inca had also benefited from the fact that the modular Onset platform ranges from “small and relatively inexpensive” models, all the way up to the circa £1m X3.
Inca Digital has also reorganised its sales and marketing function after the departure of long-serving director of sales and marketing Heather Kendle, who left the business earlier this year and joined Epson Europe as market development manager last month.
Kendle’s former role has now been split, with commercial manager Chris Ellis becoming head of sales, former consultant Colin Mills is now head of product strategy, and Millie Bullett becomes marketing executive.
At Drupa the firm also announced its participation in a new Screen joint venture aimed at the corrugated market.
Mills said he expected the 200-staff firm to have sales of around £42m-£45m this year.
