Dorking-based Barkers Print has bought a Xerox Iridesse Production Press with the new fluorescent pink toner from Xeretec to improve the quality and application flexibility of its work and to expand into new opportunities.

The 21-year-old company produces a range of work for clients in engineering, finance and the NHS, as well as publishers, conference and training providers, though the latter have been much less active during the pandemic. Its seven-year-old Xerox 1000 press was starting to show limitations in terms of colour quality, media weight and the ability to handle long-sheet work.

Managing director Rob Barker told Digital Printer that previous versions of gold and silver toner had been less than successful but that the versions used in the Iridesse are ‘completely changed’ and that the fluorescent pink is ‘wonderful – we can now hit oranges we couldn’t before. We have some clients with Pantone 021 in their logos and it helps with that’.

Mr Barker also adds that the 120ppm Iridesse brings better reproduction of photographic images as well as being faster, able to handle stock up to 400gsm and long sheets to 1200mm, and he says the front-to-back registration is ‘superb’. As well as marketing the fluorescent pink capability to clients over the coming weeks – one designer of wedding stationery is ‘very excited’ about this already – he is planning to add the silver toner to use as a spot colour for regular short-run business card work, which will also be foiled via a Vivid foil-over-toner laminator. The finishing department also includes a Duplo 646 cutter/slitter/creaser, a Watkiss Powersquare binder and Morgana Digifold and Power Master units.

Reduced business during the pandemic meant that two third of the company’s workforce was lost, but Mr Barker is confident that ‘we will come back, we will grow again,’ and that the new capabilities of the Iridesse will be part of that recovery.