Flatbed and wide format print specialist The Printcentre has opened in Sydney and installed a new Inca Onset S40i from Fujifilm – the city’s first. The Printcentre also runs an Onset S40i at its Port Melbourne plant.
Identifying opportunities in the NSW market, directors Darren Soppi and John Doyle decided it was time to build a state-of-the-art high speed flatbed printing facility in Sydney to help service its existing client base of major brand advertisers and agencies and also take some of the pressure off the machine in Melbourne.
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| The Printcentre Sydney’s new premises in Rosebery |
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| Printcentre directors John Doyle and Darren Soppi with the Inca Onset S401, complete with Sick automated board handling |
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| (LtoR) John Doyle, Steve Howland (Fujifilm) Matthew Bounds (Fujifilm) and Darren Soppi (Printcentre) |
Darren Soppi says: “Since we are originally screen printers, we were used to high quality and fast productivity. When the Onset S40i arrived on the market we felt it was the only flatbed UV machine that could match screen printing in these two areas. Now just ten months after installing our first S40i in Melbourne, we feel strongly that the Inca Onset S40i is still ahead of the pack and thus we have just installed our second machine in our new Rosebery plant in Sydney. We did look at alternatives and closely surveyed the market, but we felt that the S40i’s package of performance and quality, backed by the service and technical back up offered by Fujifilm - which has been first class since the early days with the S40i in Melbourne - made the decision relatively easy. So, we have stayed with Inca and Fujifilm once again and this machine is identical to the one we have at our Port Melbourne site.”
The choice of the inner-city suburb of Rosebery places The Printcentre Sydney within minutes of Sydney’s CBD and North Sydney, where virtually all of the major advertising agencies, media buyers and national advertisers are to be found.
“Clients will be able to visit the site for press checks without significant travel time in Sydney,” says Soppi, adding: “and there are also huge logistical benefits in that jobs destined for Sydney, Melbourne and national distribution are produced closer to their markets and destinations, to be delivered without excessive use of road and air transport. Because we have both the Sydney and Port Melbourne Onset S40i presses ICC profiled, we can produce identical colour in both states. We’ve doubled our flatbed UV capacity, halved the travel time for national deliveries, and can produce an identical print job at both plants.”
The Printcentre Sydney start up staff numbers will be over twenty once the Rosebery site is fully operational. In addition to the pair of 3.14 x 1.6 metre flatbed Onset S40is, it will offer a variety of roll-to-roll solvent and UV digital machines up to five metres wide, with banner and billboard fabrication including welding, mounting and laminating. Hi-speed flatbed forme-cutting tables serve to finish the output from the Onset S40i machines in side both plants.
“We’ve dealt with Fujifilm for many years; going back to our screen printing days when we used Sericol inks exclusively” says Soppi. “We have an excellent working relationship with Fujifilm products and their technical support is exceptional.”
The Rosebery Inca Onset S40i will produce a variety of work but mostly High Visibility POS, Street Furniture Posters, Outdoor Advertising and a variety of rigid material applications also used outdoors.
“Having combined capacity of around 980 square metres per hour over both plants, each of which will operate 16 hour days, I don’t think there are any flatbed printing companies in Australia who can output 31,000 square metres in a day at this quality resolution. These are great machines! We have entered the Sydney market, for numerous reasons, not the least being that this will be the only Onset S40i currently in the NSW market. We feel that, with two Inca Onset S40is, we have a very strong point of difference to other large format digital printers Australia wide,” says Soppi.
The Printcentre’s growth plans are to consolidate fast turn-around service to its existing client base while reviewing options for expansion and possible acquisitions around the country.
Fujifilm Australia
www.fujifilm.com.au
