The Motioncutter was purchased from Konica Minolta, which became the exclusive European reseller and partner of German manufacturer Themediahouse in 2020.
The Motioncutter 23 was installed at Southend-on-Sea based Solopress just before Christmas.
The high-speed 45metres/min device offers a range of functions including kiss cutting, engraving, perforating, creasing, and the ability to produce personalised products.
Automation features includes barcode job recognition and software controlled waste separation.
Solopress managing director Simon Cooper said the Motioncutter was installed just before Christmas, and was poised to go into full production imminently following a period of training and testing.
“It’s something completely new for us. We are selling more and more stickers and labels. It was the only product category that grew, and quite considerably at that, during Covid.”
He said that the firm’s previous approach of using pre-kiss cut sheets of standard shapes on different types of label stock had been inefficient and complex, and had involved managing nearly 200 stock lines.
“Now we can print a batch of, say, gloss labels with permanent adhesive. Then load them into the Motioncutter and do them all together,” he explained.
“It’s a big enabler. We can now do any shape, any size, and any quantity. People want unique things and we’re confident we’ll see a good uptake when we add it to the website.
Cooper said the investment had been north of £300,000, while “the saving on material costs alone should pay for it within a year and a quarter”.
As well as labels, the trade and B2B printer plans to use the Motioncutter for laser cutting of products such as invitations, very short-run presentation folders, and personalised bespoke products.
“The machine is absolutely incredible when you see what it’s capable of doing,” he added.
Grahame Megilley, industrial print business development manager at Konica Minolta Business Solutions (UK), said the flexibility of the Motioncutter made it ideal for a wide range of Solopress clients, including “smaller microbusinesses and home-based businesses that produce very bespoke individual products that require short runs of labels/stickers – something which is often lacking in the market but is in high demand post-pandemic”.
Cooper said Solopress, which had turnover of £30m pre-pandemic and is owned by German group OnlinePrinters, had seen a better start to trading in 2022 than in 2019 and he was hoping to see a resurgence in demand this year.
