Hollywood Monster expands soft signage with dye-sub Vutek

Hollywood Monster is investing in a Vutek FabriVu 340i dye-sub printer, its eleventh EFI machine, to expand its soft signage capabilities.

The £250,000 deal with supplier CMYUK, brings Hollywood Monster’s total EFI investment over eight years to around £5m. The FabriVu will be one of six EFI printers onsite at the Birmingham signage operation when it arrives on Monday (22 July).

Managing director Simon McKenzie attributed the company’s loyalty to EFI and CMYUK’s ink and service deals, as well as its customer service and the economy of scale from having multiple machines.

“By taking on a dye-sub printer, we can be a one-stop shop for clients,” he said. “We have had a lot of our exhibition and events clients indicate a need for these applications and we thought it best that they stay with us for the full commission rather than taking half of the work to someone else.

“We spent the last couple of months speaking to our clients and they said the FabriVu would be a great idea, which gave us the confidence to invest.

“It should lead to an increase in the sales we generate from our current client base, but it also increases our production volumes because we were already running soft signage on our UV printers and this means we can take on even more jobs.”

The 3.4m-wide, CMYK Vutek FabriVu 340i can print direct-to-textile or onto transfer paper and is constructed with an inline calender for turning textile printing and fixing into a single, uninterrupted process. It prints at speeds exceeding 160sqm/hr.

This latest spend comes four months after Hollywood Monster invested in its second Vutek HS125 Pro high-speed UV flatbed. The firm’s production portfolio is further filled out by a Vutek GS5000R and a Vutek 5R alongside two Zünd cutters – an 1800 and a G3, which was installed in April last year.

With his company currently standing at £10m turnover with 75 staff, McKenzie said he was anticipating a jump in sales to £13m next year with the help of new contracts. The latter half of 2019 would represent a period of consolidation, as well as the addition of night shifts.