Green-On invests in Versafire to aid growth

Green-On has installed a Heidelberg Versafire EV to bolster its digital wing as the amount of digital work it carries out grows.

The new press was installed at the Tunbridge Wells firm's premises in December and has been running since mid-January.

The business has previously relied on litho presses but an increase in the proportion of work being printed digitally drove the decision to replace the company's sole Ricoh Pro C751 with the Versafire.

Joint managing director David Harvey said: “Gradually over a few years digital has grown at Green-On, but last year it just flipped, and demand shot up. This was great, but we realised that we would have to keep up.

“By taking on the Versafire we have been able to keep clients happy and it added longer sheet capabilities, which was a priority for me. But it opened up other doors we didn’t expect; on the very first day it ran a job usually done litho and the client loved it.

“It has great opportunities in variable data and quicker turnaround than litho. But I think back to when I started as an apprentice and litho phased out letterpress and I believe that litho will still be around for plenty of years. It works well in tandem alongside digital.”

Heidelberg’s Versafire EV prints at up to 95 A4 ppm on stock up to 360gsm with a resolution of 4,800x2,400dpi. The machine features a 'floating' fifth colour capability that enables white ink to be printed onto a substrate before the standard CMYK in a single pass.

For the time being, Green-On has elected to run a standard four-colour system, carrying out jobs for clients in markets such as the funeral trade for orders of service and estate agents for landscape A4 work.

In its litho arm, Green-On runs two Heidelberg Speedmasters: a 52 and a 74. It also runs one B3 and one B2 Heidelberg Cylinder and its oldest machine onsite is a Heidelberg Platen used for cutting and creasing.

Harvey is now committed to making sure Green-On lives up to its name by spending 2019 making a greater push to be environmentally friendly, even if it impacts on profit margins, by introducing LED lighting and looking at running its systems on reusable electricity.

“I have young children and I would like them to be able to take over this company and be proud it did the right thing one day,” he said.

With eight members of staff, Green-On currently turns over £700,000.