Indigo digital press meets on-demand print growth

Blackburns of Bolton, UK, has installed its second HP Indigo 7000 digital press to respond to customer demands and position itself for increased web-to-print production.

A long-time user of Indigo presses, starting with an Indigo E-print 1000+, and re-investing regularly, Blackburns has replaced its Indigo 5000 press with the new seven-colour Indigo 7000 to increase production capacity and print quality.

Christian Peacock, sales and marketing director of Blackburns of Bolton, said: 'We have been seeing a substantial growth in both print on-demand and requests for on-line printing services.

The 75 per cent increase in printing speed that the Indigo 700 provides over the Indigo 5000 has moved our capacity into a new league.

We have even found that having an Indigo 7000 has attracted business for us.

Blackburns of Bolton operates three websites to provide a variety of web-to-print and web commerce services and they have generated a lot of traffic and sales, said the company.

The company also offers personalised calendar creation.

The online market is not the only sector where Blackburns has experienced growth in the current uncertain commercial print market.

Peacock explained: 'We have seen a number of jobs previously carried out by companies in-house come to us.

For example, we are now printing a large number of training manuals.

This is not just due to the speed and quality of printing on our new 7000 press, but also because either the resources no longer exist at the customer sites, or because they've learned that printing them digitally can be more cost-effective than photocopying.

Other trends noted by Peacock include an increase in personalised printing work and the development of business partnerships enabled by online facilities and a high-end digital printing capability.

He commented: 'Companies that are adding value appear to be having more success than those that are merely cutting costs.

Digital printing can be an important factor in that process and we are well-positioned to help customers realise that goal.

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