Potts Print ups commitment to large format with Acuity investment

Cramlington printer Potts Print (UK) has bought the UK’s first Fujifilm Acuity F flatbed to boost presence in large format print.

Potts Print (UK) is investing to become a significant player in wide format on the back of a record setting year for group sales. These broke through £15 million for the year, up from £14 million in 2014.

The Cramlington business has bought an Acuity F flatbed printer from Fujifilm, the first in the UK to buy the most productive of the Acuity flatbed machines. The company brought wide format printing in-house with the acquisition at the end of 2014 of Digital XL. A year later, the business is preparing to expand on the initial investment.

Business development director John Conway says the aim is to make the business a formidable presence in the wide format sector. “With our established range of sheet fed lithographic, short run digital, mailing and fulfilment services, our wide format digital print offering complements and supports our aim to become a one-stop print solutions company for existing and new clients alike,” he says.

“We work with some powerful brands and have completed several major projects with them during 2015. With this latest investment we can work closely with our clients to deliver a complete project, seamlessly and without compromise on quality or turnaround.”

A series of open houses is planned to demonstrate the expanded capability to existing and potential clients. The company has had an earlier flatbed machine. This investment brings with it a huge boost to productivity.

The Acuity F can include white ink printing on a 3.05×2.5m bed using UV cured inks at speeds of up to 155m²/hr. It runs with six-colour inks, four process colours plus light magenta and light cyan. It can print on rigid materials to 50mm thick. Potts will be aiming to expand its share of point of sale, signage, display and outdoor markets.

Potts already has the finishing equipment in place to cope with this variety of work.

The new Acuity F will be under the control of Keith McHugh and Iain McDougal, technical directors of the wide format division. McHugh says: “Iain and I began to research which kit would best service both existing and potential clients. We decided to partner with Fuji because of the versatility, excellent image quality and significant boost in productivity that the Acuity F achieves.”