Kingsway Printers Moves into Digital Label Production with an HP Indigo press ws4500

BARCELONA, Spain, 17 February 2010 - HP today announced that Kingsway Printers, of Humberston, Lincolnshire, has installed an HP Indigo press ws4500 and an AB Graphic Omega Digicon Series 2 finishing unit to create an end-to-end digital label and flexible packaging production capability.

Established in 1972, the family-run company is the latest in a number of medium size label converters who have taken the decision to add digital printing to its services. Beginning as a conventional commercial printer, Kingsway Printers moved into label production shortly after with the installation of UV flexo presses.

The company has developed label converting experience and expertise in specialist label production including "no label" look labels and the converting of peel-and-read, reveal-and-reseal labels, for blue-chip customers in a variety of industries.

"There were a number of reasons why we decided to move into digital production," explained Richard Pullan, managing director, Kingsway Printers. "We'd been evaluating digital label printing for about two years, but it was at Labelexpo in September that we felt that there was a solution to meet our long-term needs and that the time was right. The key factors of print quality and overall investment cost had come together; we saw opportunities to take advantages of digital printing's capabilities like short runs and variable data printing, and we felt confident about the level of support HP could offer."

Kingsway Printer's HP Indigo press ws4500 is a seven-colour press able to match 97 percent of the PANTONE® Colour range, providing versatility and the assurance that critical brand and corporate colours can be reliably matched. The press is driven by an HP SmartStream Labels and Packaging Print Server, powered by EskoArtwork, that optimises production with prepress and colour management tools, streamlines other prepress functions and manages variable data. For finishing, a modular Omega Digicon Series 2 system from HP partner AB Graphic International provides versatile, expandable finishing.

"We believe that customers now require shorter runs, reduced stock holding and the ability to have more frequent design changes," Richard Pullan said. "The HP Indigo press delivers that as well as variable data printing for sequential numbering, variable bar coding and other track and trace information."

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