Bluetree is about to join an exclusive club with the installation of a second Landa Digital Press. The Rotherham online trade printer is clearing space alongside its first S10P by moving large format flatbed machines ahead of delivery of the new press in the new year.
The company was the European beta site for the S10P in 2019 and has been building volume on the press ever since, at first gradually and following a significant upgrade in the summer this year, at pace. The machine is now working 24/7 and has been filled with general commercial work that has had to be printed either on its Speedmasters or Indigo B2 machines, with posters from the large format section and with work for Kingsbury Press its high end luxury books brand.
Joint CEO James Kinsella says “the original aim of the first Landa was to fill the gap from digital to litho. We have found we are moving more work to the machine. Today our biggest growth area is books and booklet printing and with the acquisition of Kingsbury Press we have started to produce high quality books, particularly photographic books on the Landa.
“We have moved to 24/7 working on the first machine, leading to the decision to invest in the second. We had our best month since installation for it in September and beat that again last month.”
The first machine is a four-colour-only press, the new machine has a seven-colour configuration which Kinsella explains will enable the company to deliver higher impact spreads for photographic books and to hit brand colours without having to use spot colours on a litho press. It will also have a double delivery to increase operational efficiency he adds.
The installation will put Bluetree among the few printers with two Landa presses. While it is currently an exclusive club, momentum is building behind the technology. The manufacturer broke through the 50 press installation barrier last year thanks to a doubling of sales in 2023 over 2022. Now CEO Gil Oron, who joined Landa from Orbotech in 2021, says that the first landmark took time to achieve “because we are first to market with this disruptive technology”. The manufacturer has concentrated on ‘snagging’ issues with the first generation of presses. “Now it’s fully ready and the growth path is rapid,” he says. “We will double the installed base ‘quite soon’.”
Part of the work has been to extend the life of consumables, such as the imaging belt and extending the gaps between maintenance tasks. There is no time lost between jobs, improving press availability by 60%.
This has increased the appeal of the press to smaller printers. A recent installation in Germany has gone to direct mail specialist Wirtz which had previously printed on a B2 Lithrone with a bank of Xerox and Indigos to add personalisation. These have all been replaced by the Landa S10P and will pave the way to increase turnover from €8 million. It has doubled revenue over the last ten years. Its managing director Mark Schmidt says: “Our customers are trading towards a younger age group and print needs to compete with other channels, with more powerful mailings that integrate with other channels and are environmentally friendly.”
In the US Brodnax, a $40 million sales general printer, has also installed a Landa within the last year to tackle direct mail, specifically a quarterly mailing for a healthcare company. “This involves 630,000 mailings and has taken 230 hours of production time on existing digital presses. It now takes 18 hours on the Landa, the job drops faster and the customer is selling work faster,” says Jim Singer.
The latest upgrade to the press and its operating system did not include a speed increase. But this is not forgotten. “Higher speed is needed and that is part of the road map,” says Oron.
