Johannesburg, 17 Feb 2014
Cape Town-based printing house Old School Digital has boosted its annual turnover by 20% since investing in a new Xerox Colour 1000 digital press from Bytes Document Solutions and Oxbow.
The company has also reduced its 'click cost' significantly, allowing it to profitably print higher volumes before having to switch to litho printing for larger jobs.
"The digital printing market has a stigma attached to it called click cost - the small 'royalty' fee incurred for every digital click (or print) made by the machine," says Old School Digital co-founder and co-owner Rolf van Wyk.
"This means that once a print run reaches a certain volume, it makes more sense, from a cost perspective, for a client to switch to offset printing."
The Xerox Colour 1000 is equipped with two standard 2 000-sheet trays that handle lightweight and heavyweight stocks from 55gsm to 350gsm at sizes ranging from 182mm x 182mm up to 330mm x 488mm at full speed, reducing production times and improving productivity.
Featuring Xerox's Dry Ink technology, the press uses no fuser oil, producing a smooth offset-like finish with long-life photo receptors and dual wire, auto-cleaning corotrons that last longer and provide more uniform print quality.
"It feels as if we can now make real money again with our digital services, whereas before we had a fairly low ceiling on the volumes we could accept before switching over to the slower and more costly litho process," he says.
"We've run more than 800 000 impressions through the Colour 1000, with minimal technical support. At this rate we're looking at a volume and turnover increase of 20%, and viable volumes of up to 1 000 clicks."
Oxbow managing director Brett Furlong says companies that specialise in the production of high-quality and high-volume printing on a variety of formats using multiple printing technologies, stand the best chance of success in an increasingly congested and competitive market.
"As technology advances, it's often the skills learned over decades of craftsmanship and the experience of operators like Rolf and his team at Old School Digital that make the printing industry such a vibrant and exciting place to work in," he says. "This is particularly true in a small market like Cape Town, where new solutions - and combinations of new and older solutions - are the only real way for a business to differentiate, expand and ultimately succeed."
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