Océ opens up new markets for Integrated Graphics

Barry, Glamorgan, South Wales –  23 November, 2011 – A print firm’s investment has reduced costs, increased efficiency and swelled its digital work by 40% with a new, state-of-the-art Océ production system.

The 20-year-old company in Barry, Wales has boosted its own printing capacity to produce pharmaceutical manuals with little or no stock. The investment has enabled them to expand into new markets, such as short-run book publishing, through a near £250,000 investment of which the centrepiece is an Océ VarioPrint 6000 printer that is part of the world speed champion family in mono cutsheet digital production presses known as the Océ ‘Ultra’ series.

One of the key requirements was being able to print efficiently onto very light paper (60gsm thickness) at ultra-high speed. Integrated Graphics awarded the contract to Océ after a rigorous testing process where other printer suppliers failed because of problems of paper ‘curling’ and frequent paper jamming.

Japanese and Russian text also had a hand in the decision-making process. In trials, Océ’s system had by far the best quality for producing the intricate printing required for the languages from those two countries.

Adrian Hickey, a Director of Integrated Graphics Ltd, said: “This is the best bit of kit we have ever bought or seen for our printing work. Quite frankly, it could not have gone better. This leading-edge print system has far exceeded our expectations and given us the ability to win work that just wouldn’t have been possible before.

“The new machine has been increasing our work considerably, such with the way we do the finishing for 180-page booklets. And we’ve had virtually no downtime – it’s running fantastically.”

The investment in this print-on-demand digital system has other significant benefits. For instance, Integrated Graphics previously had to store two months worth of paper totalling 20 tons.

Now the Océ 6250 VarioPrint system has created £20,000 worth of annual efficiency savings for the company and is already producing three to five million pages a month, but this figure is expected to go up by 40% this year.

Craig Nethercott, Director of Océ UK Production Printing, said: “Integrated Graphics’ investment is another example of a big swing in the market with established printers and publishers printing for distribution, not printing for warehouses. This is why there is so much growth in markets such as digital books.

“Even though everybody can see that overall volumes are down, digital printing continues to develop at a rapid pace and is the technology that all businesses must look to investing in for the future. And digital book manufacturing will continue to increase at a phenomenal rate just as litho will continue to go down.”

Integrated Graphics wide-ranging capabilities include producing manuals, legal documents, pharmaceutical literature, exhibition pop-ups, banner stands, posters, leaflets, brochures, photographs, as well as doing graphic and web design.

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Further information from Colin Harding, of Shaw Communications,
01344 761208, 07730 435400, colin.harding@shawcommunications.co.uk

About Océ
Océ is one of the leading providers of document management and printing for professionals. The Océ offering includes office printing and copying systems, high speed digital production printers and wide format printing systems for both technical documentation and color display graphics. Océ is also a foremost supplier of document management outsourcing. Many of the Fortune Global 500 companies and leading commercial printers are Océ customers. The company was founded in 1877. With headquarters in Venlo, The Netherlands, Océ is active in over 100 countries and employs more than 20,000 people worldwide. Total revenues in financial 2010 amounted to approximately €2.7 billion. Océ is listed on Euronext in Amsterdam. For more information visit www.oce.com.

Océ and Canon: Stronger together
In 2010 Océ joined the Canon Group of companies with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, to create the global leader in the printing industry. Canon develops, manufactures and markets a growing line-up of copying machines, printers, cameras, optical and other products that meet a diverse range of customer needs. The Canon Group comprises over 197,000 employees worldwide. Global net sales in 2010 were more than USD 45 billion. For more information visit www.canon.com.