Cestrian rolls out personalised Christmas wrap service

Wide-format printer Cestrian has launched a festive promotion that will see the firm create free personalised wrapping paper for customers.

The Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire-based firm estimates it will receive around 200 applications for the promotion, which is open to a closed user group of around 35,000 past and potential Cestrian customers.

Once customers have received an email notifying them of the promotion, they are able to upload or create and submit their own designs or images via a web-to-print system.

Cestrian’s automation engine checks the artwork and sets up the print file and the firm then prints each design on a single sheet of 1,020x720mm 90gsm silk paper using its Inca Onset R50i printer.

Cestrian digital marketing manager Ian Staton said: “We’ve seen a mix of customers use the service so far, including agencies and small businesses.

“We’ve had a good response so far and some good feedback from our customers that have said it’s a really good promotion.”

The promotion went live in late November and the first batch of wrap is being printed this week while the second batch will be printed later this month and sent out to customers in time for Christmas.

Customers that request a sheet of wrap are also able to enter a competition to win an iPad Mini, an iPod Nano or an Apple Watch by uploading their design to Twitter and tagging Cestrian in the tweet. The firm will judge each submission on ‘best design’, ‘best use’ and ‘most retweets’.

Cestrian has around 90 staff and is looking to grow its turnover by more than 50% from £11.5m in 2015 to £18m in 2018. It has recently taken on a new finance director, Alex Jessup, to help with its strategic development, financial performance and HR.