CPI Group has bought a Canon ColorStream 6700 web inkjet press and an ImagePress C9010 sheet-fed toner model to be installed at joint venture partner Wiley Distribution’s European facility in Bognor Regis, West Sussex, as part of a £3 million growth strategy that will see the addition of 40 new staff over the next three years.
The investment is part of a plan to deliver a fully automated end-to-end service to publishing customers, a sector that CPI, already one of the largest book and journal printers in Europe, intends to expand into further. The group has seven production sites in the UK and has been a Canon customer since 2008. The joint venture with US-owned Wiley Distribution, to provide on-demand printing and inventory management, was announced in June 2020.
The ColorStream 6700 inkjet web press, capable of printing at 150m/min, is intended to allow CPI to meet increasing demand for short-run and ‘zero inventory’ orders, while also minimising paper wastage and publishers’ stock holdings. It will be complemented by the 90ppm SRA3 ImagePress C9010 and Canon Prisma workflow software for automation.
Alison Kaye, managing director STMA & Colour, CPI UK, said, ‘We’ve had a strong working relationship with Canon for a number of years and after installing a ColorStream printer in our Eastbourne site in 2019, we knew that the device would be the perfect solution for our latest partnership with Wiley Distribution.
‘Since announcing the partnership in June, we have already started working with two publishing companies, Edward Elgar Publishing and John Hunt Publishing. The publishers have already started to see the benefits from the new print system and we’re looking forward to working with more publishing firms in the future.’
Stuart Rising, head of commercial print, Production Printing Products, Canon UK, commented, ‘CPI’s move to supply print on demand from Wiley’s distribution centre is revolutionary and will provide its customers with an exciting new proposition. Over the last 13 years, we’ve been able to develop a trusted partnership with the business and it has been great to be part CPI’s most recent venture.’
