Marketing provider, FastAnt, based in Leicester, UK, has purchased an HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press which the company hopes will enhance its service offering and deliver an in-house POP/POS capability to its retail customer base.
Mark Dempsey HP Account Manager with Matthew Wennington and Chris Bowen of FastAntFasAnt, a subsidiary of offset-litho print company, Taylor Bloxham Ltd, is an existing HP Indigo digital press customer. A key deciding factor in the purchase of the new press was that it had reached a 'critical mass' in the volume of POS work it outsourced to other suppliers. This reliance on outside parties meant that it had very little control over when it could distribute materials to its clients.
The company decided to investigate the market for a suitable press to solve its dilemma. It submitted artwork to three manufacturers of large format printers, and viewed up-close demonstrations. It finally selected the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press based on its combination of speed, quality and upgradeability.
Matthew Wennington, FastAnt's managing director explained the process.
"Before we approached the three short-listed suppliers, we had an extremely clear idea of exactly what we needed,” he said. “We have to be as efficient as possible and ensure we don't have money tied up in equipment unless it's working very effectively for us. As a result, we only invest in something once we are absolutely certain that it will pay dividends for us."
As part of FastAnt's evaluation process, different artwork for different substrates, based on real life customer requirements, was created and sent to each supplier to print. When the samples were returned, Wennington assembled FastAnt's design and POS sales teams to view the results, having first obscured the manufacturer's names.
"This internal 'Pepsi challenge' resulted in the HP Scitex FB7600 consistently scoring the highest on every printed sample we displayed to our sales team, and as these are the guys that would eventually have to sell, that was effectively decision made," he explained.
In addition to the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press' high visual quality of printed output, FastAnt was impressed at its ability to handle a wide range of different substrates - including those generally considered to be difficult. During these demos Wennington witnessed the press' performance first-hand:
"One media type that we use in high amounts is corrugated board," he continued. "I was stunned by the FB7600 press' ability to handle this material, which proved troublesome for the other devices we looked at and required continual operator intervention.
"Part of the sample designs we submitted to HP included those printed onto corrugated board using the highest saturation level. The FB7600 printed around 100 straight-off in about an hour and without skipping a beat, so we knew if it could handle that, it could handle any substrate we threw at it," he added.
For FastAnt, the HP Scitex Press' ability to tick the right boxes in terms of speed and quality was paramount. This was important and, says Wennington, highlights the capabilities of large format digital printing to the company's parent offset printing business, Taylor Bloxham.
"Taylor Bloxham is widely acknowledged for its focus on quality and colour consistency, which is underscored by the fact that it prints the colour cards for three major paint manufacturers," continued Wennington. "The fact that the group selected HP technology reflects our belief that it delivers on the stringent quality levels required for our customers. We believe it will open up opportunities to grow business among existing clients as well as attract new ones."
The HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press prints up to 95 full-size sheets/hr in production speed and up to 55 full-size sheets/hr with POP quality on a wide variety of media up to 25mm thick, while a six-colour UV-curable HP FB225 Scitex Ink set provides excellent dot gain and an impressive colour gamut up to 600dpi resolution. In addition, a new edge-to-edge printing feature means that final-size sheets may be printed, which eliminates the need for trimming, thereby saving substrates and reducing product damage through additional handling.
Celebrating its tenth year in business in 2012, FastAnt offers end-to-end marketing support to a wide-ranging base of retail clients. Its service offering comprises POS design and production, direct marketing, marketing fulfilment, eCommerce, digital printing and print management. Taylor Bloxham, established in 1939, is one of the largest independent lithographic printers in the UK and in 2007 received the Queen's Award for Enterprise for Innovation in Printing.
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