Five years of growth in five years of operation signal GTP is doing something right.
Graphic Printing Technologies (GPT) is about to celebrate the end of just its fifth year of trading, as well as a fifth year of continuous growth. This success comes at a time when the market is still feeling the full brunt of the economic downturn and the general manager Stuart Cole puts it down to giving the customer complete satisfaction. GPT does this through hard work, offering great customer service, genuine advice and value for money. GPT is also fully committed, providing genuine products, parts and consumables to deliver reliable and consistent quality.
“We have ploughed considerable investment into our demonstration facility at Reading (Berkshire) and this is our key differentiator against a lot of competition,” says Cole, adding, “It’s not just about having the odd printer around to show, we have a fully integrated workflow covering printers, Rips, cutters and laminators covering different applications, manufacturers, and technologies. In May we held our second open house session of the year, following the huge success of our first back in January 2012, where printers and sign-makers from across the UK enjoyed the opportunity to see our solutions in action and see for themselves how they might work for them.”
Cole continues: “With many new systems launched this year at Fespa Digital, Sign UK and more recently Drupa, there is plenty for the end user to think about. Our open days give them a chance to come and see the very latest offerings in a relaxed environment. As well as GPT’s own people, we have representatives from some of the major manufacturers attending. Brands that GPT offer include printers from Mimaki, Agfa, Canon and Epson, contour cutters from Mimaki and Zund, Rips from Shiraz, Wasatch and Onyx and laminators from EasyMount, GBC, Kala and Seal. The recently established relationships with Secabo for heat presses and KeenCut for trimmers, round off a great portfolio. We believe these open days are the most comprehensive anywhere in the country.” He adds: “A greatly overlooked fact is that GPT is also a media supplier, including all the above manufacturer brands as well as Sihl, Intelicoat and our own white box products.”
Key solutions - the broadest range of consumables
GPT puts a huge emphasis on its customer relations. And in this industry, that means providing the ink, media, parts and other consumables that end users require to keep their printers up and running and profitable. With the added financial backing provided from the acquisition by Amari Plastics in 2010, GPT has an unrivalled stock holding, excellent supplier relationships and experienced consumable account managers.
Cole explains: “We fully understand that getting the right consumables quickly is paramount to our customers and we have invested heavily in this area. We talk to our customers to ensure we are holding the right stock to ensure we can fulfil their requirements. We also have excellent relationships with our own suppliers so that we can always deliver fast and accurately and always at a competitive price.”
Key solutions - Mimaki TPC-1000 dye sublimation
One company that attended the open day in January and very much liked what they saw was Brunel Engraving, a specialist commercial engraving company based in Bristol. Managing director, Martyn Wright, explains: “We got into digital print with sublimation, using Epson A3 printers. Upon attending the GPT open day, we discovered we can go into larger format dye sublimation with the Mimaki TPC-1000. The people there gave us a lot of information about many different machines. As a result of their knowledge and guidance we decided that we would buy not only the Mimaki TPC-1000 dye sublimation printer, but also a Mimaki UJF3042FX flatbed UV printer.”
Wright continues: “We’ve worked with GPT ever since then, and having already bought two machines from them, we’re considering buying a third. We have found them to be a good company to work with, giving us great advice and support and we are sure this will continue. The machines that they’re supplying will enable us to look at new avenues of business and we’re looking forward to dealing with them in the future.”
The Mimaki TPC-1000 is an integrated printer/cutter designed to meet a range of applications from basic mouse mats and mugs, to apparel including uniforms, work wear, t-shirts, swimsuits and virtually any type of clothing that requires additional text or graphics. The Mimaki TPC-1000 is based on Mimaki’s market-leading CJV printer/cutter and delivers a cost-effective integrated solution to creating unique designs on a range of apparel. GPT also offers the Secabo range heat presses to deliver a complete bundled solution for dye sublimation and heat transfer printing onto a broad range of materials including plastic, paper and fabric.
Cole says: “Now we are able to offer customers the complete package from Mimaki’s expert dye-sub printers to Secabo’s heat presses. The two really go well together and we are confident that this is a winning combination. Many people, like Brunel, are printing with small-format Epson-type printers using Saw Grass or other third party dye sub inks. These companies are finding that as their workload increases the cost of this printing setup is prohibitively expensive. GPT can offer a complete, more cost-effective solution that delivers a production-level solution with much lower cost per print and greater flexibility to deliver a broader and most value-oriented service.”
Key solution - Mimaki JV-400 latex
Another major new printer for GPT this year is the Mimaki JV-400 latex printer. Cole says: “This is a very important printer for the market. The strength of latex is in its environmental credentials, lower running costs, and range of substrates available to print on it. Coupled with the quality and experience of Mimaki, we fully expect this to be a very popular product. GPT is supporting this product very heavily with a system available for prospective customers to see and review at our showroom. We encourage anyone interested in this printer to contact us as soon as possible to talk about its capabilities and applications.”
The Mimaki JV-400 has a wealth of features and benefits that put it ahead in the latex market, a market which is currently filled by HP. One of the main benefits is that the new Mimaki range runs significantly cooler (60 degrees) than the HP. With so many benefits of this lower running temperature it’s hard to summarise them all here, but a wider range of materials, lower running costs, lower cost of ownership, better quality of print, and the ability for unattended for overnight printing, are just a few.
“Once the key benefits of quality, environment and versatility are identified, cost becomes the massive issue when customers are looking at latex printers. While we appreciate that the Mimaki requires a higher capital outlay, the cost of ownership is much better than the equivalent option from HP,” says Cole, adding, “We have determined that the Mimaki JV-400 at an average usage level, recoups any additional outlay in purchase cost well inside the first year. After that, years two, three and onward, the Mimaki latex is significantly improving your potential profits.”
More key solutions
As well as the products highlighted in this feature, GPT has also enjoyed massive success with a range of other products and consumables. These include the UJF3042 FX (and more recently the HG model). The company has also established itself as the UK’s leader when providing Mimaki’s flagship solvent printer, the JV33 as well as the integrated printer/cutter options.
Cole concludes: “GPT has grown, and continues to grow, steadily and profitably. Our business is based on sound principles and it is the long term satisfaction, loyalty and retention of customers that is core to what we do. We always try to go that extra mile to ensure customers are up and running and making money at all times.”
Email Stuart Cole at GPT at stuart@g-p-t.co.uk
www.g-p-t.co.uk