Founded in 1979, Acorn Press is a diversified business that delivers a range of litho, digital and large-format printing services to customers. In September 2021, the company underwent a management buy-out and has since invested heavily in certain areas of the business to enhance its offering.
This included wide format, with Acorn Press taking on the Ricoh Pro TF6251 as part of its expansion effort in June of this year. The company was already running a roll-to-roll machine in house for work such as large posters and pop-up displays but required a new printer in order to address a rise in demand for specific types of work.
Acorn Press was receiving more enquiries about corex and foamex work, which it was previously not able to produce in house. The company then secured a contract for a large finance business that included certain POS material, which it was having to outsource at an approximate cost of £300,000. As a result, it opted to invest in the new Ricoh printer to bring this, and other signage work, in house.
We decided on this model as it has the roll-to-roll option and also offers white ink,” Acorn Press Managing Director Simon Evers said. “The main factors for selecting the Ricoh solution were the cost-effectiveness of running the printer, the speed of the machine, and the fact that the samples we produced for the finance company matched previous work very well. The machine offered everything we needed to facilitate that project.”
Having been running the new Ricoh printer for several months now, Simon and the Acorn Press team have seen a significant change in operations, primarily that the company can now deliver a wide range of POS services in house, and as a direct result has secured profitable new contracts.
Recent work printed on the Ricoh Pro TF6251 includes estate agent corex boards; signage on 3mm, 5mm and 10mm foamex; aluminium dibonds and acrylic, POS strut cards on rigid display boards; and even Christmas trees on airboard for retail stores.
“The roll option means we can print on most substrates and have also produced floor graphics, wall papers and window displays on ultra-clear vinyls,” Simon said. “There seems no limit to the variety of POS we can produce and with the printer’s speed we are producing work same day for certain customers.
“Since the machine was installed, we have had so much demand and enquiries for all sorts of work; it has opened new avenues and helped us win new contracts.”
The Ricoh Pro TF6251 was installed alongside a new Veloblade flatbed water cooled CNC router from Vivid Laminating Technologies. Materials such as wood, acrylic and plastics are printed on the Ricoh machine and then cut on the 2,500mm x 1,600mm router to produce applications such as banners, posters and kiss-cut stickers.
“We have quite a broad customer base and those customers are buying POS products, which we can now offer alongside our litho and digital work,” Simon said. “The Ricoh machine is being run on a single day shift currently and is constantly being used.”
