The Taunton-based business produces all the graphics for Debenhams’ 168 stores, and also prints for a number of major brand owners. Director of print operations Chris Tester confirmed the order for a Durst Rho P10 320R and a high-speed Rho 320 HS at Fespa on Wednesday (26 June). Debenhams is spending £26m remodelling its flagship Oxford Street store and high-quality graphics will be a fundamental part of the new look. “We know they’re going to require fabulous graphics and we expect that to roll out across the business,” he said. He praised the “superb” quality of the P10 and the speed of the HS model, along with the ability to print fabrics. “The volume work will still be paper, but we expect to produce more and more stretch graphic frames,” Tester added. “We can even step up A5s on the Durst and we know they will be good enough.” The £13m turnover operation employs 90 staff at its 5,600sqm facility, and runs 24/5. It operates a range of digital and offset kit including B2 and B1 Heidelberg presses, an Inca Onset S20 and small format Xerox and Konica Minolta digital kit. The new Durst devices will replace an old Nur roll-fed printer. The investment will result in a three-fold increase in UV wide-format capacity and also includes a second Fotoba slitter, Seal laminator and Esko Automation Engine workflow. Magenta uses its own print-on-demand system developed in-house and is able to get promotions in-store within 48 hours. The new kit will be installed in just over a fortnight and is set to be up and running by the end of July. Durst sales manager Matt Ashman said: “We’re very proud, this is the first investment Debenhams have made with Durst.” Debenhams is expanding its retail footprint and plans to increase its store count in the UK and Ireland to 220. Tester added: “We have a very, very close relationship with the marketing team, and by being more integrated we can react swiftly to trading conditions. Having printing facilities in-house means we are masters of our own destiny.” Tester was at Fespa with Magenta Print & Display production manager Lee Hutchinson,...

Previously the Onyx, Impala and Nyala had minimum droplet size of 14pl, but will now be available with both options, while existing machines can be upgraded. According to SwissQprint product manager Kilian Hintermann, the company is the first vendor of flatbed printers incorporating Konica Minolta heads to offer this new, reduced size. “Competitors will introduce this later, but they haven’t yet,” he said. The company said that updating an existing machine would involve a technician spending half a day upgrading electrical boards and software, and would cost £850-£2,500. “This will be worth it; it’s a big advantage,” said Hintermann. “The units can now print 2pt font size, which is needed when printing fine art and photography work for example.” The smaller droplet size has been enabled by advances in SwissQprint’s ability to control droplet placement, said Hintermann, adding: “It’s also about the dot placement and accuracy. Just small dots won’t help if the accuracy’s not good.”...

The super-wide-format machine will join Yorkshire-based Dominion’s recently purchased Inca Onset S40, its Onset S20 and rostre of HP machines. “We did look at other Durst, Vutek and HP Scitex machines, but only the Durst and Uvistar can really compete on speed and quality,” said associate director Tom Clark. “We’ve been getting requests for 3 x 2m jobs which we couldn’t do before, but now we’ll be able to.” The Uvistar Pro 8 has a recommended retail price of £212,000, a top speed of 353sqm/hr and incorporates a complete set of light colours to enable high quality printing at high speeds. It is also available as a 3.5m model. The Dominion signing has brought the total of five-metre Pro 8s signed for in Europe to five....

The 2.5×3.5m high speed UV flatbed device was launched as part of a new 600 series range, which replaces 550 series. Signing the contract on the Canon stand (H5S) DiPrint Oy chief executive Peter Maaronen said the new device would help the business meet customer demand for same day turnaround. He added: “I’m very much looking forward to getting it installed and benefitting from the additional capacity – and business – it will deliver.” The machine will be delivered in August will join DiPrint Oy’s existing Océ Arizona 360 XT, bought in 2011, and a ColorWave 600 PP. Meanhwile a new wide-format report released at Fespa by Canon has revealed that print buyers want more communication and faster response times from their print clients. Your Customers’ View on the Value of Print, was released at Fespa this week as a wide-format addition to its insight report, Bigger Picture, which was published last year. The new report, contains specific research into the wide format market and in-depth interview results from a panel of 30 pan-European print buyers that commission wide-format work. The research highlighted a need for more printers to offer faster response times, communicate more effectively and provide samples of their work to prove their credibility. Twenty-nine panelists said they were commissioning work on a wider variety of substrates than just paper and card, such as glass, metal and wood. Meanwhile 24 interviewees said that they are not contacted regularly by their print clients and nine said they never hear from them. The research is designed to help printers better understand the requirements of print buyers so they can boost business opportunities....

The 2.5×3.5m high speed UV flatbed device was launched as part of a new 600 series range, which replaces 550 series. Signing the contract on the Canon stand (H5S) DiPrint Oy chief executive Peter Maaronen said the new device would help the business meet customer demand for same day turnaround. He added: “I’m very much looking forward to getting it installed and benefitting from the additional capacity – and business – it will deliver.” The machine will be delivered in August will join DiPrint Oy’s existing Océ Arizona 360 XT, bought in 2011, and a ColorWave 600 PP. Meanhwile a new wide-format report released at Fespa by Canon has revealed that print buyers want more communication and faster response times from their print clients. Your Customers’ View on the Value of Print, was released at Fespa this week as a wide-format addition to its insight report, Bigger Picture, which was published last year. The new report, contains specific research into the wide format market and in-depth interview results from a panel of 30 pan-European print buyers that commission wide-format work. The research highlighted a need for more printers to offer faster response times, communicate more effectively and provide samples of their work to prove their credibility. Twenty-nine panelists said they were commissioning work on a wider variety of substrates than just paper and card, such as glass, metal and wood. Meanwhile 24 interviewees said that they are not contacted regularly by their print clients and nine said they never hear from them. The research is designed to help printers better understand the requirements of print buyers so they can boost business opportunities....