Wallpaper Ink quadruples capacity with Roland buy

Bespoke W2P wallpaper printer Wallpaper Ink has bought three new 1.6m-Roland VersaExpress RF-640 wide-format printers.

The new devices, which cost £9,995 each, bring the total number of Roland VersaExpress RF-640s owned by the firm to four. They were installed over the past month.

Wallpaper Ink managing director Scott Evans said he had considered a number of other machines, but choosing the same model had been "a no-brainer" in the end.

He said: “With the first Roland that we bought two years ago we used a bulk ink system from Inktec, which we liked and have carried on using.

“The print speeds on the Rolands are really good and one thing I do like is the tracking, from roll-to-roll, it tracks really nicely onto the core of the job.

“We’ve bought these latest models to keep up with demand really. Website traffic has been growing month-on-month for the past 18 months; the more conversion we get on the site, the busier we are so we need to keep up."

The Roland RF-640 prints at speeds up to 49sqm/h and comes with a Roland GX cutter. It has VersaWorks RIP which includes an in-built Pantone spot colour library.

Meanwhile, the Pontypridd-based company has recently signed a deal with stock photography provider Shutterstock, giving its customers access to Shutterstock’s image library. According to Evans, Wallpaper Ink is the first bespoke wall mural printer to sign such a deal. Wallpaper Ink paid Shutterstock £3,000 for credits. When a customer purchases a print from the Shutterstock library, one credit is used up.

It has a similar deal with Adobe's stock image service Fotolia, which the firm signed two years ago, Evans said.

Evans believes the latest partnership could contribute to a boost in turnover, from £290,000 to £350,000 by the end of the year.

Wallpaper Ink provides a W2P wallpaper-printing service. It employs five staff in its 300sqm premises. It also employs three web developers in India. It has also recently expanded its offering to the US market.