Ashley Clarke (left) and Adrian de Candole (right) flank Repropoint’s Adam Booth.

Surrey printer Blue Dot Display has worked with both generations of HP’s Latex wide format printing technology and can see why it has become so popular.

HP has set itself ambitious targets for market share with its Latex wide format devices, but with new models launched last year that put right many of the perceived ills of the first generation of Latex printers, and resellers reporting strong sales, the target of gaining 50% of the market by 2016 might not prove as steep as it sounds.

Repropoint, the Woking print company that also has an equipment sales division, has been selling the HP Latex machines through its membership of the GDL Network. The sales figures are for the GDL Network as a whole, but it reports that there has been 160% growth on sales of Latex machines, comparing Q1 of its 2014 financial year to Q1 of the 2015 financial year (November to January). It seems likely that the improved second generation technology is a key contributory reason for this.

One customer that has tried both the early Latex system and the new is Blue Dot Display in Godalming, Surrey. It had purchased the HP L25500 from Perfect Colours and was running it alongside a Roland XC-540 print & cut device. Although it was quite happy with the L25500, there were definite teething issues, according to director Adrian de Candole. Mostly, the criticism in the industry was about the high heat generation in the drying process, which was expensive and had a limiting factor on the media types that could be used.

Mr de Candole and Ashley Clarke from Blue Dot attended an open day at Repropoint and were impressed with the HP Latex 360 – a 64-inch wide printer with a built-in spectrophotometer for colour profiling – and with the customer service. They bought the Latex 360 and it was installed in October 2014. The timing was good, since the end of the year is a quieter period for the company, but in any case, the Latex 360 was pretty much a switch-it-on-and-start-printing scenario anyway.

‘There was a lot that we liked about the old Latex: the print quality; the fact that we could leave it unattended overnight; the fact that you could just pull jobs straight off and work with it, with no need for outgassing. But there were definitely teething issues, such as the fact that certain media could not print on it. Clearly, with the Latex 360 it has been upgraded and they have ironed everything out. They have listened to people’s grumbles about it, and, for us, they have addressed pretty much all of them. I think they are remarkably good value printers.’

The biggest benefit Blue Dot is experiencing with the Latex 360 is that it can now put PVC roller banner material through the system, which was not possible on the L25500 because the heat used in drying would cockle the material. While the company still has the L25500, the Latex 360 is most definitely now the first choice for any print job, unless it would be a better fit for the print & cut Roland (a job with quantities of stickers, for example). The Blue Dot team also appreciates the new LED light that illuminates inside while the Latex 360 is printing – a small addition that makes it easier for an operator to juggle several tasks simultaneously.

Mr de Candole continued: ‘If you were going to choose one machine, you could not just have a solvent printer, but you could just have a Latex printer. I suspect that lots of companies that are our size are going down the Latex route.’

The £400,000 turnover firm does print work for a number of large companies and event organisers, and these types of customers can be very demanding in terms of colour reproduction. According to Mr Candole, both Latex systems have stood up well in this regard. ‘We like the fact that we know it will replicate the colours that people want. We were happy with the quality on the old one and we’re very happy with the quality on the new one.’

The relationship with Repropoint seems to be very positive, with a good deal of friendly banter having been mixed in with the business deal. Mr de Candole describes it as a ‘very easy, pleasant experience’. Repropoint itself sells a range of HP kit, as well as Summa cutters, Contex scanners, and KIP systems for the CAD market, and has recently established a loyalty programme for its customers.