New Press Helps Win Contract After Only 1 Month

Absolute Digital in Kendal (UK) has won a contract to print Reebok UK's flagship footwear and apparel catalogues using a KBA 46 Karat digital imaging press, which they installed only a month ago.

Absolute Digital in Kendal (UK) has won a contract to print Reebok UK's flagship footwear and apparel catalogues using a KBA 46 Karat digital imaging press, which they installed only a month ago.

Ex-Frank Petersû employees, Jon Wallbank and Malcolm Oates set up the company in May last year and Alan Fawcett, a third working partner, joined them in November.

"We could see the market changing and the constraints that short run colour was putting on litho.

It just wasn't profitable enough, which is why we spent 12 months researching alternatives before we went down the digital route and started the new company," said Wallbank.

The company installed an HP Indigo 1000, which it had offered very successfully to its litho customers.

"It quickly became clear that they wanted much more from us in terms of longer runs up to tens of thousands of copies.

We weren't competitive with our equipment, which is why we decided to buy a direct imaging press.

I've been in the industry for 20 years and have had experience with CTP before and felt confident that most of the problems that were around with the early DI presses had been ironed out," he added.

The company looked at three suppliers before placing an order for the 46 Karat with A B Dick.

"We liked the Karat because it used a waterless process, the quality and depth of colour were excellent and the speed of make-ready and turn round with the IR dryer was very fast.

The latest Presstek Pro-Fire laser technology gave us 200 screen ruling, which has set us aside from other printers, who have gone for 175 screen ruling.

The difference is that we can produce fantastic quality, which can compete with anything on the market," Wallbank pointed out.

He said his company chose A B Dick because we liked their style.

They were very responsive and they instilled confidence in Absolute Digital that it knew what it was talking about.

"We felt sure that the company would support us throughout the installation and this was proven.

I couldn't fault their service in any way right through from the delivery team to the installation engineers, the trainers and the sales support staff.

We are a very young trading company, which has invested approximately £500,000, so we had to be confident that we had made the right decision and make a good business case to the bank, because they don't take risks," Wallbank stressed.

"We were fortunate that we were able to support our business case with letters of intent from some very well known companies.

We could never have won the Reebok catalogue work before because the click charge on the Indigo didn't make it viable to do more than 200-250 catalogues.

The specification is 1,900 copies of a very prestigious 200-page document, which is ideal for the Karat," he added.

A B Dick supplied a special silver ink to match Reebok's specifications and Absolute Digital was very impressed with the ink usage, a benefit of the waterless process, because it only a thin film of ink is required.

"We have just completed a 60,000 run of tabbed dividers with a full out solid and it only half the ink we expected.

The consistency of colour through the whole run is amazing, particularly as we have previously experienced a wide variation.

All these features, together with the reduced set up costs and minimal wastage demonstrate how profitable short run colour printing can be.

To date we haven't had any problems and we've been able to produce consistently high quality work, which has excited our current and prospective customers," concluded Wallbank.

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