Digital Colour Printer Builds Short-Run Print

Blackburn (UK) trade printer, Lancashire Printing Company, is finding digital printing success just five months after installing a Xerox Docucolor 250 digital colour printer.

Blackburn (UK) trade printer, Lancashire Printing Company, is finding digital printing success just five months after installing a Xerox Docucolor 250 digital colour printer.

The Xerox machine was supplied by Oldham company and Xerox premier partner, Express Print Solutions (EPS).

Steve Wetton, studio director at Lancashire Printing Company, said: "We had been following digital's progression as a printing technology for a number of years.

Although we knew there was clearly a market for short-run work using digital presses, as a quality-driven organisation we were only prepared to make the move to digital when we were totally confident that it would meet all our key requirements of quality, speed and consistency." Wetton added: "Express Print Solutions then approached us in mid-2005 with a proposal for the Docucolor250 and organised a demonstration for us to see it in action.

We were extremely impressed with the functionality, speed and quality of the Xerox digital printer range.

The decision to go digital was made from there." The company has already seen a number of immediate benefits since the installation.

Wetton explained: "For a start, our four colour litho presses are now not tied up with short-run work and the turn-around time for this Print On Demand work has been drastically reduced.

Our in-house digital print operation now plays a critical and complementary role in our business.

It supports the litho operation and is enabling us to bring new customers on stream, and enhance our relationships with existing customers due to the versatility of the applications it offers." He also commented that the company's litho presses can now concentrate on what they are best at, leaving the shorter run, print on demand work to the digital operation.

And he said: "It's a great combination and is offering us a clear path for future growth." The Docucolor 250 is not only serving as a digital printer but is now also being used as a proofing system, helping the Blackburn printer to further maximise its return on investment.

Steve Wetton added: "The in-built RIP means this printer is offering us tremendous speed in our pre-press department.

As trade printers, we are often at the very sharp end in terms of turn-around, so an efficient process to ensure a rapid response to customer demands is a non-negotiable requirement for our business.

The Docucolor 250 is helping us to achieve this." Lancashire Printing Company has a trade print customer base throughout the United Kingdom.

It has developed a heritage over the past 30 years based on quality-driven print, delivered on time and on budget, said the company.

It was originally established as litho and thermography printer and remains true to those roots.

However, the installation of its Xerox Docucolor 250 last November helps the company offer a more comprehensive service to its customers.

Wetton concluded: "What also really impressed us was the technical and market knowledge demonstrated by the Express Print Solutions team.

They understand their products and how digital printing can really benefit the traditional litho printer.

EPS worked closely with us throughout the sales, installation and post-sales cycle to ensure our team fully understood the capabilities of the new Xerox printer and how to take advantage of its full range of applications to maximise our investment.".

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