Inkjet & Digital Printing

Digital printing presses from Heidelberg become firmly established in Great Britain

Wednesday 13. February 2013 - The digital presses Linoprint C 901 and C 751 handle a wide and varied range of work and offer additional customer service for very short run and variable data printing

Apple Litho and Panda Print focus on personalisation in digital print
Bristol-based Apple Litho, and Scottish Panda Print in Dunfermline go digital adding Linoprint presses from Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) to their pressrooms.
Digital becomes core to Apple Litho’s printing portfolio
A local Government contract has spurred Apple Litho to invest in a Heidelberg Linoprint C 901 digital press. Already armed with around 2.3 million Euro of litho kit, this quality colour printer wanted to offer its customers an additional service for very short run and variable data printing contracts. “We explored the market and looked at equipment available, but Heidelberg offered a competitive price without any of the smoke and mirrors on running costs,” says Louis Bracey, managing director and founder of the 33 year old company. “We needed a machine that was beyond the basic entry system, but we didn’t require the very high-end plus line either. With people asking for smaller and smaller quantities of print and with digital quality getting better and better it was the right time and the Linoprint C 901 was the right machine.”
Panda Print adds a Linoprint C 751 to its digital line up
Panda Print has replaced one of its digital colour lines with a Heidelberg Linoprint C 751. The company has sourced its litho machines from Heidelberg for some years and when it viewed the C 751 it was convinced it was right for its market. “It was the best option,” says Mark Wilson, production director and member of the family business. “It offered the quality for the type and volume of job we handle and was in the right price bracket. We run a number of Heidelberg litho machines and for us a real advantage will be that in the future we will be able to connect this machine to Prinect so prepress can allocate work quickly and easily to the best machine for the job.”
Apple Litho’s is revitalising its web site and refreshing the signage around its central Bristol location. It will promote its comprehensive services, using Apple Colour and Apple Digital as trading names for Apple Litho. The personal and one off work that the company might previously have shunned can now be handled. Apple Litho envisages much of the digital work coming from existing users although it also believes having personalisation could open up new opportunities as well.
The Linoprint C 901 will be housed in prepress and staff there will run it, passing it through to the established finishing department for cutting, folding and/or stitching and despatch. This department also handles work from the company’s two B2 presses, a Speedmaster XL 75-5-P and a Speedmaster CD 74-4 from Heidelberg. It will operate on a 6am to 2pm and 2pm to 10am shift system, five days a week.
“Since our company was formed we have seen the printing industry compressed and depressed. Thankfully we are doing well. Presses today produce double the volume of print and at the same time we have seen the rise of competition from the Internet. However, one of our customers, handling industrial branded clothing, moved away from catalogues to online selling but has returned to catalogues finding it a better sales medium. So I do still have confidence in the future of print. It is still going to be needed in many guises, including stationery and prestige promotional work,” says Louis Bracey.
At Panda Print the choice between digital and litho is decided on a case by case basis, the company’s estimators advising each client on the comparative costs and agreeing which route to take. It says that work above 1,000 A4 sheets would certainly go on a litho machine but sometimes the choice is more complex than simply run length.
“We get good service from Heidelberg and, to enable us to commission this press with least disruption, they installed it for us over the Christmas-New Year break so we are now up and running,” says Mark Wilson.
Panda Print takes most of its work from within Scotland and it handles a very broad range of jobs for both business and consumer customers. The digital presses, which operate of a flexible day shift, handle a wide and varied range of work.