The B2 machine was installed at the group’s Willerby, East Yorkshire site in late July, following in an Onset X3 HS Dual Flex flatbed printer from Fujifilm that was installed in January.
ImageData said it had noticed changes in its customers’ purchasing behaviours, particularly the demand for shorter print runs from its retail clients, who were pressured from buyers to change pricing and deals at the last minute.
The business therefore saw an opportunity to move up to B2 high-speed digital printing and extend its personalisation offering.
The Indigo 100k has enabled the company to print variable data up to B2 – an area it has not been able to fulfil previously – while increasing its print capacity with the ability to print up to 6,000 variable B2 full colour sheets an hour.
Operating three sites in the UK – Willerby; Brighton, East Sussex; and Howden, East Yorkshire – the business produces a wide range of print including POS, direct marketing, building wraps, and marketing collateral for a large roster of clients, including many blue-chip brands.
With its sites spread out over 250 miles across the UK, the group found itself having to transport work across the country to utilise finishing capacity, in order to meet increasing customer demands.
It wanted to explore ways to reduce its carbon footprint without compromising on service to customers, and said the new Indigo 100k would allow it to limit its carbon footprint by offering low environmental impact printing, reducing the need to travel between sites for various finishes.
This also means that products can be printed, finished, packaged, and delivered to customers all from one site, speeding up its turnaround times.
ImageData production director Pete Shaw said: “As a company we have been looking at the B2 digital market for many years.
“We now feel that with the quality and speed of print achievable on the 100K, it is the perfect time to invest in more energy efficient machinery that will not only help us to achieve our clients’ needs, but to meet them in a more environmentally sustainable way.”
Last year the company installed a CTX132 guillotine from Komori at its Willerby site; two Xerox Nuvera 314 printers, a Duplo DC-746 multi-finisher, and a Duplo DPB-500 perfect binder at its Brighton premises; and a Zünd G3 3XL-2500 digital cutter at its Howden site.
It also signed off a major MIS spend with Tharstern across its three sites.
The Indigo 100K has been integrated among the company's litho printing capabilities. It said this has given it the right balance of digital and offset to offer greater flexibility in its jobs and become more competitive within the B2 market.
Quality has also increased due to the machine’s vibrant colours and ability to run a wide range of substrates inline without the need to interrupt production.
