Challenge
- Expand business into lucrative high image quality outdoor and indoor signage market
- Obtain production printing speeds while maintaining outstanding image quality
- Price printed products competitively through lower production costs
- Ability to print on a broad range of media, from vinyl to low-cost polyester(6)
- Simple workflow to speed up delivery and keep costs down
Solutions
- HP Scitex LX800 Printer
- HP Latex Inks
- Original HP printing materials including HP Photo-realistic Poster Paper (recyclable through commonly available recycling programs)
Results
- Winning international customers looking to maximise market reach on tight budgets
- Customers are recognising high image quality offered at competitive costs
- Achieving production capacity and application versatility that delivers for regular, broad-ranging printed campaigns
Businesses worldwide have been adopting aggressive strategies to increase their profit margins and grow their market share despite the recent economic downturn. As a result, time to market has become shorter and shorter, budgets are extremely tight so cost and time savings are made wherever possible. Print buyers reflect the wider market conditions and continue to demand many different products, in shorter time, and with reduced budgets, even as the economic outlook brightens.
Benefits to the bottom line
Verdúdigital is a highly successful, full service printing business based outside Barcelona in Spain. They reacted rapidly to deteriorating market conditions by expanding into the higher quality signage market, a new segment for their business. They utilised the HP Scitex LX800 Printer that features HP Latex Inks to print a host of outdoor and indoor applications.
Vicente Verdu, Sales Manager at Verdúdigital describes the business approach they adopted. "In a deteriorating market it may seem counter-intuitive to acquire new equipment but the benefits to the bottom line have far outweighed the investment," says Vicente, adding, "We have made new customers by achieving outstanding image quality while satisfying customer needs to cut costs. We use recyclable HP Photo-realistic Poster Paper for high quality images. We can print directly on economical polyester fabrics and our estimated average HP Latex Ink consumption is 1800 m² (5905 ft²) per set of inks as compared to 800 -1000 m² (2625 - 3281 ft²) using our other, slower printers, on a like-for-like basis. We can now handle the print demands of larger and larger companies on a national and worldwide basis."
For a world-renowned Scandinavian furniture brand, Verdúdigital has been exploiting the HP PVCfree Wall Paper that, together with HP Latex Inks, provides odourless interior wall decorations that meet GREENGUARD criteria for low emitting products and AgBB criteria for health-related evaluation of VOC emissions of indoor building products.
In addition, by using HP Latex Inks Verdúdigital does not require special ventilation equipment or an external dryer and the company can attract environmentally conscious customers because of the printer's ability to produce odour-free(2) prints and the availability of a range of recyclable HP printing materials, many of which can be returned to HP for free and convenient recycling.
Productivity that wins worldwide business
One of their latest business successes has seen Verdúdigital printing worldwide campaigns for an international jeans brand. Vicente describes the scope of the job. "The HP Scitex LX800 Printer produces posters, billboards, point of purchase displays, interior decoration and facades. We print them, mount them, pack them and ship them worldwide. For the latest campaign we printed 1200 m² (3937 ft²) in 10 days, including mounting. The printer is extremely quick and the productivity features add to the overall fast turnaround. The dual roll means we can load two 1374 mm (54 in) rolls and print on both side by side, at the same time," states Vicente. Roll-to-free fall and roll-to-collector capabilities let you print and finish simultaneously.
Edging out competition with unbeatable Combination
Verdúdigital possesses a broad range of printing technology but Vicente believes that the high image quality, production print speeds and the workflow productivity offered by the HP Scitex LX800 Printer are an unbeatable combination. Recently a multinational company that owns a number of famous fashion labels and cosmetics brands invited Verdúdigital to present an offer for its worldwide printed signage campaigns.
Vicente explains how the HP Scitex LX800 Printer is allowing them to undercut the competition. "Their previous supplier was using chemical processes to create the images. Image quality was extremely high, but so were the costs… and delivery times were drawn out. I was convinced that the HP Scitex LX800 Printer could give us an edge by achieving a high image quality that would satisfy customer needs while delivering jobs at greater speeds and lower production costs. We ran some tests and the client was very impressed with image quality… and even more impressed with the cost savings. Prior to the HP Scitex LX800 Printer we wouldn't have been able to compete," states Vicente delightedly.
Today Verdúdigital exploits the HP Scitex LX800 Printer to print all the applications they possibly can. "Once you have used the printer in your business, you realize that you could never survive without it again," Vicente concludes.
