Creative, design and print solutions business, UYR Ltd, has invested in a further Agfa wide format printing machine, an Anapurna H2500i LED, offering additional speed to their service and ensuring they continue to meet increasingly shorter customer lead times.
“Digital marketing has shifted perceptions in the fast moving hospitality market we serve. It allows our clients to be reactive to the climate, creating ideas in the morning and promoting them the same day.” Said Phillip Tasker, Account Director at the UYR Group. “Our corporate clients now want to create promotions where the physical POS may have to be in hundreds of locations the following week and the latest Agfa Anapurna H2500i engine helps us to deliver this.”
The Agfa Anapurna H2500i LED is a high-speed hybrid UV LED-curable inkjet system. The 6-colour engine has a print width of up to 2.5m and combines high quality with high productivity for outdoor and indoor, rigid and flexible wide-format applications. It offers roll-to-roll or flat bed printing of materials up to a thickness of 45mm. It’s also fitted with the very latest energy saving air-cooled LED lamps, which are ideal for heat-sensitive material.
For UYR, this latest printer complements their Anapurna FB2540 flat bed printer, which they use for small runs and requests from their on line print portal to support individual outlets of major accounts and their Anapurna M3200 RTR roll to roll which is used for specialist larger scale jobs. They also streamline all their wide format workflow using the Agfa Asanti production hub which helps avoids errors, minimises manual intervention, shortens pre-press procedures and simplifies the entire printing process.
UYR was founded in 1998 by Adam Wood, who had previously worked as a promoter within the music industry. The business initially supported the entertainment industry offering a creative and design service and it grew rapidly winning major new business accounts with their creative executions, largely across the hospitality market. Accounts like the European arm of the Hard Rock Café, whom they have had as a client for the past 18 years. In 2006, the business started to invest in printing engines (poster, vinyl and standard roll machines) to more efficiently support their clients and following a move to new larger premises in 2010 invested in their first litho presses, a B2 shortly followed by a larger B1 machine.
In 2012 they purchased their first wide format printer from Agfa. The introduction to Agfa came through an existing productive relationship with Litho Supplies, who continue to provide their day-to-day account support. UYR diligently research the market each time they invest in a printing press but a combination of the quality of the Agfa product’s and the healthy relationship that has developed led them to once again choose Agfa for this latest investment.
UYR now employ around 100 people and have grown by adding services for their customer base. They differ to many in that they generally only print for their clients and most of their relationships with customers have come from their creative and design service.
“The wide format side of our business is flourishing.” Said Adam Wood, Managing Director of UYR Ltd. “The importance of having a timely promotional messaging at point of purchase is increasing important for our clients. But lead times are usually tight to produce this material and as we don’t see that changing we have to invest to ensure that our ability to service the client meets their expectations. Just six weeks in we are already really pleased at the efficiency of this latest Agfa printing machine and I’d like to thank everyone at Agfa and Litho Supplies and acknowledge their strong support over the years. They have always responded well to any problems that we have experienced and been contactable at all levels at any time and that is key, particularly in the fast moving hospitality market. As a business we don’t expect to stand still we want to grow to the next phase with both Litho Supplies and Agfa’s support.”
Image Caption: L-R Peter Armitage from Agfa, Joe Canning and Phillip Tasker from UYR
