Printer Q&A

Manor Signs in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, has run a variety of wide-format printers in its time, with latex machines its current focus. The company recently replaced a HP Scitex FB500 with a HP Latex R1000 Plus, which it runs alongside a Latex 330. I talked with MD Gareth Craythorne about the latest investment and his reasons for making it.  

Greens Signmakers in Hull has been around a while - it was founded as a traditional sign writing operation by Reg Green back in 1963. When his grandson Lawrence Green took over the helm in 2018 his first focus was to refurbish the printroom and extend the company’s wide-format offering. The newest addition is a HP R2000 Latex printer. I talked with Lawrence about that investment, and what it means for the company’s development. 

JKN Digital in Preston was formed in 1988 and is now a full service exhibition and events graphics specialist, and a trade printer. It was an early adopter of HP latex technology and now runs only such printers - three L570 roll-to-roll printers and an R2000 flatbed machine. So why all the investment in HP kit? 

Formed 25 years ago, Corby-based Emerald House Associates - or EHA as it’s better known - is now a well established full-service design, print, build and install graphics company, working for prestigious clients such as Chanel, Coty and Selfridges.

I talked with the company’s owner, Mick NcNamara, about the reasons for its recent investment in a HP R2000 latex printer as part of its drive forward.

Earlier this year Coker Expo installed a HP Latex R2000 Plus at its site in Hook, Hampshire, as a prequel to launching Huebox, a new, animated lightbox system,  designed to help bring static images to life. Bet that’s piqued your interest - it did mine - so I talked with company owner and CEO Ashley Coker about the diversification, and what part the new HP latex printer is likely to play in Coker’s development.

Tayprint, in Dundee, has been transformed over the last three years, thanks largely to a £1m investment in large-format HP print kit, and a recent shift to online ordering. James Miller, who was brought in to help the family company revamp what started life as a T-shirt printing business 40 years ago, explains the strategy.