Route One’s co-founders James Kinsella (left) and Adam Carnell
Trade printer Route One Print has become the fourth UK business in two years to invest in a Fujifilm Jet Press 720S. The company will use the new device to 720S to produce personalised business cards.
‘Business cards are a high-value product,’ explained business co-founder James Kinsella. ‘They’re often the first impression a potential customer might get, so they need to look right. We print a lot of them for customers and historically we have always litho-produced them to achieve the level of quality our customers expect. The problem with producing them like this though is that we lack the flexibility to vary the finishes from one job to the next – offering spot UV finishes for instance, or rounded corners. We wanted a digital press that would give us the flexibility to add distinctive touches like this much more easily, but crucially, the quality had to be at least as good as litho.’
‘We had struggled to find anything that didn’t require us to sacrifice the quality we were used to for digital flexibility,’ added Mr Kinsella’s business partner and co-founder, Adam Carnell. ‘The Jet Press 720S had been on our radar for some time; we’ve watched its development closely and at drupa 2016 we got a good look at it up close. That visit convinced us that this machine could give us the added flexibility we needed – without any compromise on quality.’
According to Mr Kinsella, the future of print is ‘digital and it’s automated’. ‘We’re always looking to the future and we see this investment in the Jet Press 720S as a very important stepping stone on that road,’ he noted.
‘We’re delighted to see the fourth installation of our Jet Press 720S here in the UK,’ commented Chris Broadhurst, general manager at Fujifilm Graphics System UK. ‘It is great to be continuing collaboration with such a progressive company who invest in progressive technology. We look forward to seeing how the Jet Press 720S helps their business grow further.’
