Dorchester firm to add the luxury of touch to print for designer brands
Epic Printing Services has joined the growing list of commercial printers that understand the business benefits of investing in a Scodix S75 digital enhancement press. The signing took place today on Scodix's N4D371 stand at Ipex.
The Dorchester creative print and fulfilment specialist that works with local and national businesses, including luxury brands Dior and Estee Lauder as well as High Street names Lush and New Look and auctioneers Dukes, chose the Scodix S75 digital enhancement solution to creatively complete production from its B2 six-colour Mitsubishi and two-colour Heidelberg GTO litho presses and its digital Indigo 5000 press.
"We are very excited about installing the Scodix and are looking forward to helping clients deliver extremely effective printed pieces within budget," comments Managing Director Mark Downey.
"Securing this deal at Ipex is a fantastic endorsement of the business enhancing capabilities of this sensation engaging digital enhancement technology," states Kobi Bar, Scodix CEO and Co-Founder. "We are delighted that Epic Printing Services has joined the growing number of operations enthused by the system's ability to offer interactive print that stands out from the crowd."
This and a way to add value to print was what Mr. Downey was particularly keen to find: "50 percent of what we do is in the cosmetics industry and we have been looking for the last two or three years at how we can provide greater value to the printed sheet through building special effects. Traditionally this was expensive with short run work."
Epic Printing Services chose the Scodix S75 digital enhancement solution after a careful evaluation of how the special effects were applied: "Our market place is short run high quality print and we wanted to be able to offer additional enhancements that engaged both the end user's vision and touch," states Mr. Downey. "That tactile capability of the Scodix was very important to us. We believe the future of print is engaging more senses than just sight because online does that. Touch and smell are what we will be focusing on."
A review was conducted of other market available solutions from inline print capabilities to traditional post press foiling and embossing but, comments Mr. Downey: "The moment we saw the Scodix we felt that it was spot on for our market place."
As for return on investment he says there are two areas the Scodix S75 digital enhancement solution will perform strongly in. "It will deliver greater gross margin and will act as a Trojan horse for new business development," he states, expanding: "It is not installed yet and it is already a good conversation starter and a door opener."
This is important for Epic, not least because of the changing print production landscape: "For our client base and market place print runs are decreasing. There is growing differentiation within the industry between those business models that seek to produce high volume print at increasingly efficient speeds and those that seek to build variety and creativity into their output."
As for the other pluses of the Scodix S75 digital enhancement solution Mr. Downey says: "The great benefit of the Scodix is that work can be enhanced offline from a press and that means small or large runs don't dictate work flow or job completion timings. It is also ideally placed to take advantage of database mining so we can now create something very special for, say, a client's top 100 customers. Our clients are starting to recognise the importance of database management. We are in the early stages but there are signs over the next five years of this becoming a more important part of what we are doing. It is an area in which we have always tried to offer a consultative progamme as a supportive print provider that delivers much more practical print. The Scodix system will help us continue to do that."
Mark Nixon, Managing Director of Conversion adds: "Gaining this order from Epic is again confirmation that progressive UK printing companies are looking to differentiate. Excellent print and great service are no longer enough to set companies apart, but by adding another sense of depth and touch to one dimensional print, it offers their clients a way of standing out from their competition. Epic understands this opportunity and involved their top clients in the research by printing and applying the Scodix SENSE to the sheets. They gained a resounding approval.
"For me, Scodix is the next evolution in print, re-igniting and modernising its appeal by becoming much more interactive. It's good news for all progressive UK print solution providers."
