The seven-colour HP Indigo 3000, which has joined the firms existing Indigo 3000, is part of a 500,000 investment including HP Production Workflow, a new laminator, booklet maker and Optical Reading Technology.

LDPG director Nick Green, who bought the company with his brother Tim in July 2002, said that the Indigo 3000 would be used to target variable data direct mail campaigns upwards of 150,000 in run length.

Direct marketing used to be about print more pay less, but no one was focusing on response rates, just unit prices. We are all about response rates and therefore it is not the unit price that is important but the actual response rate generated, said Nick Green.

The company is in talks with agencies and clients about how to exploit the technology. LDPGs client-base already includes Proctor & Stevenson, TidalWave, Proximity, Frontline, Intimis and The Print Angle.

Digital is good for short-run fast turnaround work, but its also good for high-response direct marketing. You can produce hundreds of thousands of copies and have every page different, said Nick Green.

The press was installed at LDPGs Soho premises last Saturday. It had to be carefully winched over the building, which required a 100 tonne crane.

The 35-employee company has three divisions: On-Demand, Fashion and Marketing. Services include a photographic studio with live visualising, colour retouching, scanning, direct mail as well as photographic printing.

Green added that advance bookings for this years London Fashion Week were up 30% on last year.

Story by John Davies