Johannesburg, 17 Mar 2014
Digital Express, one of Cape Town's largest high-end commercial printers, has doubled its digital printing production volume and slashed operating costs with the purchase of a Xerox Colour 1000 digital colour press from Bytes Document Solutions and Oxbow.
"As a Xerox digital shop, we've worked with different types of machines over the past few years; however, in order to get the business where we wanted, a decision was made to overcome the volume limitations of the technology, mainly due to high 'click costs' compared to offset printing," says Digital Express managing director Dale Clay.
"We also experienced issues with matching colours, specifically corporate palettes. It took several passes to get the orange hue of a particularly popular Cape Town menu to print accurately on our previous machine, and when you're promising your customers a 24-hour turnaround, time is not your friend."
From student walk-ins to precision printing for large corporate customers, Digital Express has grown its business more than 400% since opening its doors in Rondebosch, Cape Town, six years ago. Now located in the hub of Cape Town's business district, the company needed an injection of new technology to maintain its growth trajectory.
The Xerox Colour 1000 blurs the lines between mid-volume digital printing and litho quality. A powerful engine capable of running 24x7 is supported by an integrated design that accommodates two 2 000-sheet media trays, capable of handling both lightweight and heavyweight stocks from 55gsm-350gsm at speeds up to 100ppm. An additional two 2 000-sheet tray module can be added to extend paper capacities for a total of 8 000 sheets and four pick points that accommodate different stocks.
In addition, advanced profiling features and automated colour calibration through Xerox's Automated Colour Quality Suite maps RGB and CMYK source images to a desired output standard, making it easier for operators to produce consistent output on any media.
Aside from the tangible benefits, Clay believes the relationship with Oxbow and Bytes Document Solutions is the real differentiator.
"We will only buy Xerox because of them," he says. "When we started our business, Oxbow and Bytes were there to help. If I have a problem, I can call Oxbow and have a team on site in an hour, whether it's 10am on a Monday or 2am on a Saturday. Our business never stops, and neither does their service."
"It's a symbiotic relationship between supplier and customer," says Oxbow business development specialist Stuart Daniels. "We simplify how work gets done so customers can focus on what matters, helping them identify new business opportunities and discussing technical specifications that can help the staff configure the machines to match their needs."
Oxbow managing director Brett Furlong concurs: "Often, success in this business owes as much to the staff operating the equipment as it does the equipment itself. It's our responsibility to ensure our customers are not only trained in every aspect of the equipment we sell them, but continue to receive support, feedback and additional training to help them grow and develop their own business opportunities."
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