Handy Labels will take delivery of the UK’s first AccurioLabel 231 label press in December this year as the company’s first roll to roll label press.
The Portishead business has produced sheetfed stickers and labels on sheets for some 44,000 largely online customers. Now it is moving to Konica Minolta’s new narrow web press.
“This investment not only increases our capacity for growth, but opens us up to a whole new market while giving our existing customers the choice of having their labels on rolls or sheets,” says Alex Parkin.
The business was set up by Martyn Kilford in 2007 and is now part of an Employee Ownership Trust. Kilford and Parking visited the Print Show to confirm the order for the toner press. This runs at 23.4m/min with a resolution of 2400dpi.
The company looked at alternatives says Parkin. “We certainly considered inkjet, but after extensive testing the overall capability of the AL231 exceeds that of other roll to roll machines in the same price bracket both in terms of image quality (especially on small reverse out text) and speed,” he says.
The move into roll fed labels means investment in a suitable finishing line, the company choosing a Titanium unit from IGS. The IGS IL330 is a “fantastic nine-blade system which will meet our high sku requirements,” Parkin says.
Kilford adds: “We are proud to be the first UK customer for the AccurioLabel 231, a device developed to the exact needs of a business like Handy Labels. Since day one we have promised our customers great value products and service without compromising quality. This new device from Konica Minolta ensures we can continue to honour this commitment as we scale and diversify to meet the needs of our customers.”
The AL231 was first shown at Labelexpo in Barcelona in prototype form. It has now been released for sale and was introduced at the Print Show where it was partnered with the Mini 350 finishing unit from GM.
