The Printcentre throws up the shutters on its new Sydney site unveiling the city's first Inca Onset S40i through Fujifilm, and the second for the flatbed and wide-format print specialist in just ten months. With its power-base now doubled, the Printcentre boasts a combined capacity of 31,000 square metres a day positioning the business for rapid growth in 2014.
The business officially opened its newest plant in Sydney late last year, picked specifically to house the S40i. Located in Rosebery, the site was selected to service the Printcentre's key customer-base of major brand advertisers and agencies. According to Printcentre directors Darren Soppi and John Doyle, the S40i has been quickly become a core component to the business, following the company's move from a traditional screen printing background. That history, however, leaves the team with certain expectations in terms of quality and productivity that had to be met.
"When the Onset S40i arrived in the market we felt it was the only flatbed UV machine that could match screen printing in these two areas," said Soppi.
- Proud Printcentre directors - John Doyle and Darren Soppi
The Rosebery site is officially up and running, with a few tweaks to come, but the new 3.14 x 1.6 metre flatbed machine is well and truly bedded in living up to expectations and delivering a great print job. Soppi admits that the Printcentre considered alternatives when planning for the Sydney expansion, but ultimately couldn't go past a second S40i for its overall performance, as well as first class support and technical back up from the team at Fujifilm.
Speaking with Print21 Sean Elvin, Printcentre Sydney's general manager of sales and operations, is full of praise for the S40i.
"It's an absolute workhorse. It hammers the work out and does a great print job. We've handle a lot of corflute signage, street furniture in synthetics and whole lot of diverse work. It's just fantastic," said Elvin.
In addition to the S40i, the Printcentre is kitted out for banner and billboard fabrication, including welding, mounting and laminating, producing high visibility POS, outdoor advertising and a range of rigid material applications. It also run a several roll-to-roll solvent and UV digital machines, up to five metres wide, as well as high speed flatbed forme cutting tables to finish output in-house, at both sites.
According to Soppi, "Because we have both the Sydney and Port Melbourne Onset S40i presses ICC profiled, we can produce identical colour in both states. We've doubled our flatbed UV capacity, halved the travel time for national deliveries, and can produce an identical print job at both plants."
The Printcentre's growth plans are to consolidate fast turn-around service to its existing client base while reviewing options for expansion and possible acquisitions around the country.