One Digital targets double days following HP and Duplo buys

One Digital has upgraded its wide-format HP printer with an eight-colour 1.5m HP Z6800 and invested in a new bookletmaker to boost turnover.

The roll-to-roll printer replaced an older HP Z6100 and joined a Roland Soljet Pro111 XJ-740, and Epson Pro9600 last month.

“It’s a much newer model, much faster, better colour consistency and a wider gamut,” said Lynn Brazier, who returned to the company as joint managing director last month.

“We chose it because it was the latest one. We got quite a good deal on it; they took the old one part-exchange. The HP that it replaced was very reliable but it just came to the end of its life.

The new HP is much faster so we can obviously produce prints much faster which means we can get more volume through. It sits perfectly alongside our other large-format printers.

The Brighton based company does a high percentage of wide-format work and uses its three wide-format printers to cover its range - anything from giclée print to wide outdoor banners.

The 22-staff £1.4m-turnover company also invested in a new Duplo 600i booklet maker, which arrived on Monday and complements its iGen 150 which can print A4 landscape brochures.

“We’re very excited about the Duplo bookletmaker. When we bought the iGen that had the facility to do longsheet. It also breaks down to A6 size as well which not a lot of the machines can do.

“But we never had a bookletmaker that could do that. The Duplo machine handles up to 5,200 booklets an hour in A4 landscape format. That gives us a lot more control over turnaround times and quality. It enables a fast, high quality product,” Brazier said.

“It’s a lot more robust machine and we can put some of our litho work through it. That’s going to take us to a new level.”

Brazier said One Digital did look at a Horizon alternative and thought that it would do a good job but she felt that the Duplo was a better-made machine.

“Duplo have got a very good reputation, we have a perfect binder and cutter creaser that are Duplo, they just seem better made than others in the market.”

Brazier estimates around 15-20% of the company’s turnover is landscape print, and One Digital is now able to bring that finishing work in-house.

Brazier said that she and her co-managing director Steve Poland had "a good start" since taking over from founders Steve White and Chris Staples at the beginning of April and were working towards moving to a double day shift, once they achieved a consistent increase in print volumes.

The company also runs a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 74, a Speedmaster 52, black and white Xerox Nuvera, Ricoh Priport HQ9000 duplicator, and other finishing kit at its 604sqm two-floor site in Brighton. 

“The fact that we can get more productivity though will probably increase our turnover by 50% on the wide-format side,” she said. "We’re going to be very active now on promoting the company and getting on board new customers."