GigantPrint gets royal approval for signage printed on HP Scitex printers

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Challenge

 

  • Produce varied street signage in different formats and media for Swedish royal wedding celebrations, while complying with stringent requirements for:
    – High image quality and colour matching.
    – Production process, inks, and polyester-based media that reduce the impact of printing on the environment.
  • Meet increasing customer demand to reduce the impact of printing on the environment.
  • Expand production capacity to support growth plans.

 

Solutions

 

  • HP Scitex LX800 Printer (1)
  • HP Scitex LX600 Printer (1)
  • 2 x HP Scitex XP5100 Printers
  • HP Scitex FB6700 Printer
  • HP Scitex TJ8350 Printer

 

 

Results

 

  • Won prestigious contract to produce signage for city of Stockholm’s royal wedding celebrations.
  • 20-30 percent sales growth due to ability to produce near photographic quality on polyester, canvas, and other media.
  • 24-hour productivity supports high-volume projects, ongoing growth.

 

 

HP Scitex prints form backdrop for wedding Celebrations

The total 3200 m² (10,800 ft²) of signage, from small portraits up to a massive 5 x 7 m (16.4 x 23 ft) banner, were all digitally printed on HP Scitex wide-format printers by GigantPrint, one of Sweden’s leading suppliers of customised printing. With such a high-profile print project, GigantPrint knew there was no room for error. The signage not only had to have perfect, high image quality, with flawless finishing and framing, it also had to comply with stringent environmental requirements specified by the bridal couple.

As a producer of approximately 1 million m² (10.8 million ft²) of print output every year, GigantPrint already had an excellent solution for printing the wide variety of signage required – a varied range of HP Scitex wide-format digital printers offering a choice of HP Latex Ink and UV-curable and aqueous ink printing. But, when First Sight, the event marketing company hired to produce key parts of the public celebrations, offered GigantPrint the chance to become an official print supplier to the royal wedding, GigantPrint decided to expand its capabilities.

 

HP Latex Ink printers deliver on every important Point

“Many of our customers want environmentally responsible printing; it’s becoming more and more common in Sweden, so all of our purchases nowadays are green machines,” says Torbjörn Gunnarson, Project Manager, GigantPrint. “But the main reason we took our first HP Latex Ink machine, the HP Scitex LX600 Printer, was for the quality and the productivity and because we can run so many different materials on it.”

“We do a lot of polymers and polyesters, which work really well on the HP Latex Ink machines, and we wanted to move up to a bigger width. With this wedding coming up and because they had environmental concerns, we decided to improve our productivity and add the wider HP Scitex LX800 Printer.”

“For the wedding project, it was very important to have the correct pattern and colours on different materials, and the HP Scitex LX800 Printer was perfect for the job,” recalls Gunnarson.

“We made a lot of prints to show the customer and we won in particular because of the HP Scitex LX series printers. We could do nearly everything on it and we could hold the colour on all the materials, with very good results on the canvas and polyester, on everything from the smaller prints right up to the biggest ones. Being able to use different materials on the same printer was something that others didn’t have.”

 

Near-photographic prints

This advantage was key to First Sight deciding that GigantPrint was the right print service provider for the royal wedding. “GigantPrint proved their professionalism all the way through, and particularly with the material,” recalls Brian Modin, Part-owner of First Sight.

“Products that are claimed to be ‘environmentally friendly’ tend to produce prints that lose quality. But, the prints that GigantPrint produced kept their high image quality. We have people that walk by and ask us: ‘It looks like a huge photograph… How was it done? How can anyone print those big photos?’.”

 

Broad HP Scitex printing capabilities bring in Business

GigantPrint uses the HP Scitex LX800 Printer mostly for polyester materials for indoor applications, as well as for its growing business of printing on vinyl for store windows. The flexibility to print with excellent quality on varied materials on one printer is enabling GigantPrint to grow its business, particularly in the retail, events and fairs segments. Gunnarson attributes four new large customers to GigantPrint’s HP Latex printing capabilities and estimates that sales are up 20- 30 percent as a result.

The royal wedding project was too large for just one machine. So, along with its HP Latex Ink printers, GigantPrint also put its HP Scitex FB6700 Printer and its two HP Scitex XP5100 Printers to work on the wedding signage. This enabled it to produce the huge amount of signage on polyester, canvas, paper, and backlit film and gain excellent, consistent quality and colour across the entire project.

Beyond the large royal wedding, having an array of HP Scitex printers is an important strategic advantage for GigantPrint. “The HP Scitex XP5100 Printers and the HP Scitex LX800 and LX600 Printers make it easy for us to sell new products because the machines produce high quality, are efficient and very fast, and the HP Latex Ink printers help us answer growing environmental concerns,” says Gunnarson.

 

(1) This printer can print on HP recyclable media. HP offers the HP Large-format Media take-back program in the U.S. and Europe, through which most HP recyclable signage media can be returned. Availability varies. Some recyclable papers can be recycled through commonly available recycling programmes. For details visit www.hp.com/recycle.

 

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