The deal was announced at this week’s North Print & Pack show. Victory Signs bought the kit from Mimaki reseller Your Print Specialists (YPS), which has been a long-term supplier to the Northumberland-based engraving and sign specialist. The new Mimaki has just been installed, and becomes an addition to Victory Signs’ existing production facilities spanning specialist engraving techniques and digital printing, including two other smaller-format Mimaki devices. Managing director Alan Wood praised the quality and speed of the JFX500-2131, which has a list price of £125,000. It prints at up to 60sqm/hour at 600x600dpi on items up to 50mm thick. “It’s cutting edge technology, I’m as excited about it as they [YPS] are,” he said. The new printer will allow the 13-strong family-owned business to bring screen printing work that is currently outsourced back in-house, as well as providing a springboard to expand into new areas, such as internal point-of-sale. Manager Neil Wood added: “Having a flatbed will save a lot of time. Being able to print directly onto substrates such as Dibond and Foamex will eliminate application costs and the cost of vinyls.” YPS managing director Garry Brown described it as “a great personal pleasure” to see a long-standing customer with a UK first: “It’s proof indeed that service, support and true commercial understanding are key to solid business – and we look forward to developing that value with new and existing customers alike.” Mimaki will be showing the JFX500-2131 among its exhibits at next month’s Fespa show in...

The “Share a Coca-Cola” campaign is running across 32 countries and launched in Europe at the beginning of this month. It has involved overprinting 150 popular names, nicknames, and terms of endearment in each country onto BOPP (biaxially-oriented polypropylene) labels pre-printed conventionally with standard content. The names appear in place of the usual branding for each Coca-Cola variant, in a typeface that is harmonious with the Coca-Cola brandmark look and feel. Eight users of the HP Indigo WS6000 web press for labels and flexible packaging, with a total of 12 presses between them, were enlisted to produce the labels. Production was co-ordinated by label converter Eshuis in the Netherlands. This is the same company that produced the “design your own Heineken” personalised Heineken sleeves. The presses ran for 24 hours a day, for around three months, to produce all the labels and proved “exceptionally reliable” achieving an uptime of 86% according to Eshuis managing director Peter Overbeek. Overbeek described the opportunities for brand owners in harnessing such a print network as “endless”. The job also required a high degree of colour matching and print consistency across the different print providers, with HP formulating Coca-Cola red ink specially for the project. It differs from other personalised campaigns in that consumers are not ordering or being sent their own unique product. Instead, they look for a bottle in-store with their name on it. The promotion links with a social media campaign on Facebook where consumers can create a virtual personalised Coke can, but not a real one – yet. Marit Kroon, marketing manager for Europe at Coca-Cola, said: “The ability to personalise such a high volume of labels with HP Indigo Digital Presses, while achieving the quality and consistency that Coca-Cola requires, opens up new possibilities for creative campaigns moving forward.” A UK advertisement for the campaign has been posted on Coca-Cola’s YouTube channel....

Natural AdCampaign’s TierraFilm Backlit and Window Cling materials are wood cellulose-based and completely oil and PVC free. According to the manufacturer both films comply with EN13432 and ASTM 6400 waste disposal standards by offering more than 90% degradation in six months. In addition, Natural AdCampaign managing director Alex Dowdeswell said that Window Cling is dimensional stable and features a unique compostable tack adhesive backing. According to Dowdeswell, Natural AdCampaign has been rigorously testing TierraFilm with CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel and JC Decaux for the best part of two years and he believes that they’re unique in the wide-format market. “There are some working on oil-based materials to make so-called bio-degradable PVCs, the reality is that they’re not biodegradable – they just break the material down into dust. That’s not quite the same as degradation,” claimed Dowdeswell. As well as being aerobically or anaerobically compostable, the films can also be incinerated or recycled. In terms of the films’ environmental credentials of the manufacturing process, no water is used in its production and there is a “no wastage policy” on the plasticizer used. All cellulose materials are either from accredited sustainable forestry sources or secondary waste. The products are manufactured in Europe and India. Both products are suitable for UV or latex inks and Dowdeswell said they are certified by HP and fully tested by EFI Vutek and Mimaki. Both products are available in 1,270mm wide rolls in a minimum 30m length, but can also be supplied as sheets. The company is looking at introducing wider rolls in the future, should demand dictate. It is also currently developing a white cling film, which will be launched later this year. “Price wise TierraFilm is in the same ball park as conventional products, if you’re looking at mass use cartridge paper or cheap Chinese PVC, then we’re not in that market. But we’re pound for pound the same as people like Avery and 3M and in some cases cheaper,” said Dowdeswell. “We haven’t loaded the price because we’re interested in getting people to use these two products, and that’s our primary concern. This represents a serious opportunity for printers.” The products are available in the UK from reseller Mayday Graphic Products, but orders of more than 20 rolls are handled directly by Natural AdCampaign. The latest launches follow the introduction of Natural AdCampaign’s debut substrates, NatureWoven Chorus and Gossyp, in to the UK and US markets in 2010. According to Dowdeswell, both products have proved extremely popular in the US, where they have been used on high-profile outdoor and PoS campaigns for brands including Nike, Vans and Billabong. However, he admitted take up in the UK had been slower. “We’ve seen a faster...

Natural AdCampaign’s TierraFilm Backlit and Window Cling materials are wood cellulose-based and completely oil and PVC free. According to the manufacturer both films comply with EN13432 and ASTM 6400 waste disposal standards by offering more than 90% degradation in six months. In addition, Natural AdCampaign managing director Alex Dowdeswell said that Window Cling is dimensional stable and features a unique compostable tack adhesive backing. According to Dowdeswell, Natural AdCampaign has been rigorously testing TierraFilm with CBS Outdoor, Clear Channel and JC Decaux for the best part of two years and he believes that they’re unique in the wide-format market. “There are some working on oil-based materials to make so-called bio-degradable PVCs, the reality is that they’re not biodegradable – they just break the material down into dust. That’s not quite the same as degradation,” claimed Dowdeswell. As well as being aerobically or anaerobically compostable, the films can also be incinerated or recycled. In terms of the films’ environmental credentials of the manufacturing process, no water is used in its production and there is a “no wastage policy” on the plasticizer used. All cellulose materials are either from accredited sustainable forestry sources or secondary waste. The products are manufactured in Europe and India. Both products are suitable for UV or latex inks and Dowdeswell said they are certified by HP and fully tested by EFI Vutek and Mimaki. Both products are available in 1,270mm wide rolls in a minimum 30m length, but can also be supplied as sheets. The company is looking at introducing wider rolls in the future, should demand dictate. It is also currently developing a white cling film, which will be launched later this year. “Price wise TierraFilm is in the same ball park as conventional products, if you’re looking at mass use cartridge paper or cheap Chinese PVC, then we’re not in that market. But we’re pound for pound the same as people like Avery and 3M and in some cases cheaper,” said Dowdeswell. “We haven’t loaded the price because we’re interested in getting people to use these two products, and that’s our primary concern. This represents a serious opportunity for printers.” The products are available in the UK from reseller Mayday Graphic Products, but orders of more than 20 rolls are handled directly by Natural AdCampaign. The latest launches follow the introduction of Natural AdCampaign’s debut substrates, NatureWoven Chorus and Gossyp, in to the UK and US markets in 2010. According to Dowdeswell, both products have proved extremely popular in the US, where they have been used on high-profile outdoor and PoS campaigns for brands including Nike, Vans and Billabong. However, he admitted take up in the UK had been slower. “We’ve seen a faster...

The “Share a Coca-Cola” campaign is running across 32 countries and launched in Europe at the beginning of this month. It has involved overprinting 150 popular names, nicknames, and terms of endearment in each country onto BOPP (biaxially-oriented polypropylene) labels pre-printed conventionally with standard content. The names appear in place of the usual branding for each Coca-Cola variant, in a typeface that is harmonious with the Coca-Cola brandmark look and feel. Eight users of the HP Indigo WS6000 web press for labels and flexible packaging, with a total of 12 presses between them, were enlisted to produce the labels. Production was co-ordinated by label converter Eshuis in the Netherlands. This is the same company that produced the “design your own Heineken” personalised Heineken sleeves. The presses ran for 24 hours a day, for around three months, to produce all the labels and proved “exceptionally reliable” achieving an uptime of 86% according to Eshuis managing director Peter Overbeek. Overbeek described the opportunities for brand owners in harnessing such a print network as “endless”. The job also required a high degree of colour matching and print consistency across the different print providers, with HP formulating Coca-Cola red ink specially for the project. It differs from other personalised campaigns in that consumers are not ordering or being sent their own unique product. Instead, they look for a bottle in-store with their name on it. The promotion links with a social media campaign on Facebook where consumers can create a virtual personalised Coke can, but not a real one – yet. Marit Kroon, marketing manager for Europe at Coca-Cola, said: “The ability to personalise such a high volume of labels with HP Indigo Digital Presses, while achieving the quality and consistency that Coca-Cola requires, opens up new possibilities for creative campaigns moving forward.” A UK advertisement for the campaign has been posted on Coca-Cola’s YouTube channel....