Australia’s first HP Indigo W7200 coming to On Demand

Biggest digital printer in Australia, On Demand, gets even bigger as it installs the first HP Indigo W7200 press in the country.

Bruce Peddlesden (pictured) is set wrack up another first when his Melbourne company installs the web-fed Indigo press in mid-February this year. At 19 metres long, a lot of preparation is currently being undertaken at the Port Melbourne premises to make way for it.

Peddlesden said that he chose the machine for it productivity and ability to take the company into new markets. “Our three existing presses were getting to the stage where they just weren’t coping with the volume and we needed to upgrade,” he told Print21.

“The main advantage is that we can better service our customers by being able to print high quality colour at greater speed with better efficiencies. It’s a big move for us and it will continue that solid growth that we’ve had over the last 10 years.”

The press can produce up to seven million A4-size color images or 30 million monochrome A4 images per month.

Peddleston attributed the company’s success to “keeping up to date with technology.” Further investment for equipment at the On Demand Graphics’ division looks likely for this year. After that, Peddleston would not rule out any further growth.

“Never say never,” he said.

According to Phillip Rennell, sales and marketing director at the Currie Group, which distributes the Indigo, digital printing is growing at 30 per cent year on year. An investment of this scale only cements its future even further. “This is proof that digital is a very real and quickly growing business,” he said.

“There are very good margins in digital. The growth rates are exciting for an industry which, overall, is not growing at that sort of speed.”