Digital specialist printer Excel Digital says it is expanding its labels and packaging services with a new HP Indigo WS6600 press.
The Wellington-based company plans to grow the segment to make up 50 per cent of the business in the next three years, starting with its current core customer base of boutique beverage brands.
Steve Matthews, chief executive of Excel Digital, says, “The HP Indigo WS6600 Digital Press will open up new markets for us, as well as help us to better service our existing customers with enhanced speed, quality and creative options.
“It prints eight times faster than the printers it replaces, so we can now produce the same amount of work in 12 hours that previously took 70 hours.”
The new machine will allow Excel to take on new packaging work, such as folding cartons, for the first time. Using its white ink capability, the company intends to push further into the labels and packaging market with the ability to print on dark, transparent, metallic and recycled papers.
Excel Digital has also invested in Color Logic software to add a further range of options.
Matthews says the machine will help Excel to better serve its small to medium enterprise (SME) customers by offering the flexibility to order short runs cost efficiently, with customised content.
He says, “Eighty percent of businesses in our market are SMEs, employing fewer than 20 people and producing small batches of produce that require short print runs of packaging or labels.
“Their success can be driven by digital printing, and we are proud to be able to offer the right short run solutions to support them.”
Distributor Currie Group calls the WS6600 the fastest format digital press on the market, adding that it is compatible with more than 2500 substrates.
The 20 year old company also provides communications and commercial print to clients from the government, education and retail sectors.
