Hampshire-based JDP has reported a 1400% increase in digital print on its HP Indigo 12000 and 100K presses since the installation of the latter earlier this year, achieving 5.1 million B2 impressions in September 2021.

Known as John Dollin Printing Services before its acquisition in March by Venn Holdings, the Whitchurch business installed the HP Indigo 100K in April with the expressed intention of expanding its digital print capabilities and market reach. Since installing the 100K, the company says it has gone from 0 to 94% automation, from 275 to 3172 jobs in a month and from an average of three to 266 jobs in the queue.

The installation of the Indigo 100K brought a significant increase in capacity for JDP, and the company reports that the investment is already paying off: the installation has enabled an immediate 1400% growth in digital impressions and JDP has subsequently won new contract business as a result, across a range of markets. The increased capacity will also be used to create partnerships in both B2B and B2C markets, bringing the ability to scale up production with minimal labour costs.

‘Our target of 10% compound growth per week in digital is on track and September was another new benchmark set, with 1.3 million impressions on extended shift, 257,000 sheets printed, and 25% run rate month-on-month growth,’ said Anthony Thirlby, director at JDP owner Venn Holdings.

Key to the Indigo 100K installation was the desire to eliminate touch points in post-press operations. The press has enabled the production of collated book blocks, thus reducing the post-press labour compared to analogue printing.

‘A huge contributor to our growth is our ‘smart factory’, which is essentially the automation of our whole print process from order transaction to the end of the operational process. We utilise our Venntura software platform to ensure all upstream and commercial decision-making operations are automated to deliver the maximum throughput,’ added Mr Thirlby.