(L-R) Alan Ritchie, head of print, Henderson Group; Alan O’Brien, director of Technology, GPMI; Peter Doyle, sales manager Ireland, Agfa Graphics
Belfast-based Henderson Print has invested in an Agfa Anapurna H2500i LED press from GPMI to grow the wide-format division of its business.
The company is an established litho print provider running two B2 five-colour presses and a B2 two-colour press. It also has four Roland roll-to-roll wide-format printers and this latest investment adds a Kongsberg plotter cutter machine working alongside the Agfa Anapurna H2500i LED digital wide-format press run by the Agfa Asanti workflow solution.
‘We were looking for a flatbed wide-format printing solution so we could print on ridged substrates. We visited the Sign and Display exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham to assess the options last year,’ said Alan Ritchie, head of print. ‘On our return we were given a demonstration on an Agfa Anapurna by Alan O’Brien, director of technology at GPMI. We were simply blown away by the demo in the Dublin showroom. Everything ran perfectly, and we were really impressed by the quality of the print.’
The installation of the Agfa Anapurna H2500i LED went smoothly and to date Henderson Print has had very little downtime on the kit.
‘We see a lot of our future expansion coming from the digital wide-format side of our business,’ added Mr Ritchie. ‘There will always be a market for litho, but I don’t see it growing at the rate we require and the investment size for a new litho press would be upwards of £1.5 million. The wide-format market is financially easier to access, and the market opportunity is there. The Anapurna quality is superb, even our customers are blown away with the sharpness, definition and colour strength of image. It also allows us to get creative in what we offer. It’s great for small print runs which can be personalised to give us a point of difference to sell in the future.’
