Business News
Fujifilms wide format expertise is first choice for Superior Creative
Friday 24. September 2010 - Inca Spyder V from Fujifilm offers the opportunity to raise customer service levels and quality of wide format work
Superior Creative, based outside Melksham, Wiltshire, was founded in 1976 as a design and print company.
The company boasts a Konica Minolta B3 press, a 10-colour B1 Komori Perfector and a Heidelberg 5 colour+ coater press to make up its litho offering, with a wide range of equipment in its digital plant. It also has one of the largest design and artwork studios in the South West.
Furthermore, it has a significant design department with two photography studios, an extensive finishing offering, and provides added value to its customers by running their competitions, such as text-to-win and other prize draws.
The company boasts a wide range of equipment from its digital department with Minolta B3 presses; its Litho press room comprising of a 10-colour B1 Komori Perfector and a Heidelberg 5 colour+ coater press, to a wide range of finishing equipment. It also has one of the largest design and artwork studios in the South West.
Since a management buyout in 2005, Superior has expanded, increasing its turnover to £9.6 million. In the past 2 years Superiors growth has predominantly come from the retail sector, having won several major contracts requiring large format print. “As we were outsourcing a large amount of this work”, says Richard Blueitt, Operations Director, “it became apparent we needed to invest in large format machinery.”
Far and wide for wide-format
In order to get a better view of the market, Superior Creatives management team attended Sign & Digital UK in 2009, and set up demo meetings with key digital wide-format suppliers. This is also where they saw the Inca Spyder V in action for the first time.
Ian OConnor, Managing Director at Superior Creative, says: “We spent a considerable amount of time visiting printers and suppliers for demonstrations of their wide-format offerings to ensure we made the right investment. From the moment we arrived at Fujifilms demo facility, the professional treatment we received was in a different class altogether compared to some of the other suppliers we had visited. This matched perfectly our strong belief in providing exceptional customer service, and after spending a few hours testing the Spyder, we knew this was the company, expertise and printer we wanted to invest in.”
He continues: “The Spyder is by far the most versatile printer that we saw, and we were impressed with its ease of use and high quality print at great speeds. Its ability to print so well onto corrugated board was also a big plus point for us, as this is one substrate that we regularly use.”
New beginnings
Fujifilm installed the Inca Spyder V in Superior Creatives newly refurbished digital department in November 2009 where it sits alongside a 3m digital Zünd cutter as well as a dedicated finishing area.
“Our operators in the digital department quickly and easily learnt how to operate the Spyder,” says Richard. “And, the quality jobs we have been able to produce right from day one are fantastic. We even received a letter from the customer that we produced the very first job for, commenting on the excellent quality of the finished product. Although the printer has only been installed for a short period, we are very confident that weve made the right investment.”
Ian adds: “With the Spyder, because were printing in-house, we have much tighter control over the quality of work we produce for our clients and can provide much shorter job turnarounds – offering an even better service to our customers.”
The Inca Spyder V wide-format UV flatbed device prints directly on to a wide variety of rigid and flexible media at printing resolutions of up to 1000dpi. With the fastest print speeds in its class, the Inca Spyder V has a production speed of up to 93m2/hr onto substrates up to 30mm thick. Using Fujifilms Uvijet series inks, it has a 3.2 x 1.6m image area and is available in four or six colour models, plus an extra white option. The Ultratone ink system increases the colour gamut, producing improved colour reproduction and more accurate spot colours.
As Superior Creative continues to grow from strength to strength, Ian foresees the company expanding even further in the future: “We have a continued investment programme and our service offering will always follow our customers vision and requirements for the future. We aim to do as much as possible to meet our clients needs and offer them exceptional service. With Fujifilm, we have found a supplier, who is doing the same for us. Fujifilm will definitely be our first port-of-call should we be looking to make another wide-format investment in the future.”