Alex Coulson tells how his family-owned trade printer invested in the new digital press to satisfy Heroprint customers who want their work produced with the unique quality of the electro ink technology.
In order to keep up with the growing demand for short run colour work, Coulson added a HP Indigo 7800 to his stable of presses. He admits the call was influenced by customer requests for their work to be produced on an Indigo.
Working on the basis that the customer is always right, he contacted Currie Group, the HP Indigo agents and the new press was installed at the main Sydney printing plant last month. According to Coulson, the installation and commissioning went smoothly and that the press has performed very well since being commissioned.
“From the start of next year all digital printing from Sydney will be done on the HP Indigo,” he said.
It’s all part of a major transformation underway at the high profile ‘for trade’ printer. Apart from the installation of the HP Indigo 7800, there is significant investment under way in new technology for the New Year as well as major reorganisation of the plant. The presses are running flat out with no sign of a drop off this side of Christmas.
An increase in the number of short-run digital jobs also shows no sign of slowing. Coulson reckons on an average of 100 digital jobs a day, of between 50 and 100 sheets, powering through the HP Indigo. This is a whole new area of printing.
He attributes much of Heroprint’s ongoing growth and success to its long-term experience and expertise in trade printing. “We’ve been doing this for more than 15 years. We’ve worked to get the website right and we definitely see more printers coming our way because of our reputation,” he said.
The current printing investments continue the practice of only buying to meet customer demand. “We don’t buy something and then go out to fill it. The work is already there,” said Coulson.
Apart from its impressive line-up of Komori offset, Heroprint also runs a Ricoh engine in addition to a Kodak Nexpress. If the amount of work going through Heroprint in this pre-Christmas season is anything to go by, the printing industry has more than recovered from its few lean years and like Coulson can look forward with confidence to an even better 2016.