HOA Creative Communications Ltd has broadened its client offering and extended its in-house digital printing capabilities by investing in a Ricoh Pro C901 digital colour press.
Having previously outsourced its printing, the company’s investment marked the first step in bringing production in-house. The flexibility of the Pro C901 has not only increased efficiency and allowed for cost savings, but has also enabled the company to move into the production of packaging prototypes and samples that have inspired clients to be more creative and fuelled a range of new business opportunities for the company.
Henry Otulakowski, managing director, said, ‘Over the past 12 months, we have brought a lot of our print production in-house. This change in our business model has allowed us to fully utilise our core strengths while continuing to outsource to specialists where needed. We do a significant amount of work for large, national accounts and our priority is providing an efficient, quality-led service for all of our customers. The installation of the new press has given us much greater control over both the print process and quality of what we are producing, and allows us to guarantee fantastic turnaround times for clients too. We have unique web to print service that allows our customers to update their own artwork once we have trained them to use this bespoke software. These new files are then sent directly to the press, meaning these jobs can be printed and ready for dispatch, sometimes within just half an hour of the changes being made.’
The ProC901 offers a wide media versatility and finishing options that have helped to extend the range of jobs the company is able to accept. The company also invested in a Fiery E42 controller, which offers advanced colour and job management control, and a range of finishing equipment for cutting, creasing and folding.
Mr Otulakowski, added, ‘We wanted to install a press that allows us to bolt on and update elements on the machine with ease, as we grow and adapt our in-house offering to meet customer demand. The modular design of the Ricoh Pro C901 gives us the total flexibility to supply our customers with what they need as the market grows and their needs change.
‘We do a significant amount of R&D work with food packaging clients looking to produce exciting and innovative new designs and with the Ricoh press we are now able to cost effectively create packaging samples, prototypes and mock ups, on-demand. Having a prototype to show customers can help encourage them to be more creative at the design stage because they can see and touch these examples and test them on a practical level too.’
