Canterbury Press Enhances Its Digital Printing Approach with HP Indigo Purchase

HP today announced that Canterbury Press has purchased an HP Indigo 5500 digital press, a strategic move that will enable the print service provider (PSP) to meet growing demand for personalized marketing collateral and short-run printing.

"When it came to selecting the best digital press technology, the choice was very clear," said Allan Daniels, co-owner, Canterbury Press. "Every printing company I see that is serious about digital printing has bought an HP Indigo."

The recently installed digital press resolved what had been a frustrating situation for the Atlanta-based commercial printing firm. Canterbury Press was gaining few new opportunities with its sheetfed offset printing operations and the digital capabilities of its lower-volume, "light production" multifunction device were unsatisfactory to customers because of limitations in image quality and throughput.   

The real digital solution for commercial print

Canterbury Press has earned a reputation for high-quality offset output that it could not risk with just any digital print solution. After some research, Canterbury Press decided against upgrading its previous digital technology in favor of adding the HP Indigo. 

"I gathered print samples and customer lists from each of the major digital press vendors," said Jim Solmson, Canterbury Press's other co-owner. "The shops that were offset commercial printers - businesses we consider to be our immediate competitors in the commercial printing marketplace - all had HP Indigo digital presses."

Canterbury Press's competitors were not the only deciding factor: When its customers reviewed the print samples, they consistently said they preferred the quality from the HP Indigo 5500 digital press. 

The 5500's consistent high-quality output, including PANTONE-licensed color matching and custom mixing for spot colors , have made it HP's top-selling digital press model. The HP press also offers white ink printing, an option Canterbury Press selected in order to pursue a broader range of high-end designs, including four-color printing on colored, metalized and transparent media. 

Designed for the production of marketing collateral, direct mail, photo merchandise products, books and manuals, the HP  Indigo 5500 digital press supports an extended range of media - including recycled as well as Forest Stewardship Council- and Sustainable Forestry Initiative-certified papers. The press also incorporates HP DreamColor Technologies, a certified system of technologies and sciences that makes it easy to produce accurate, predictable and consistent color.

Building a strong business in digital print

The purchase, completed earlier this year, was more than a hardware installation. Canterbury Press staff and executives have grown their business by leveraging the HP Capture business development program, using customizable case studies and marketing collateral from HP and taking part in educational sales and marketing webinars. Canterbury Press also had HP digital printing experts available to give presentations during some of its sales calls, another sign of the commitment to success HP establishes with its customers.  

The collaborative work with HP in business development has already yielded success. Using case studies to highlight the ways personalization improves marketing results, Canterbury Press is seeing more customers adopt targeted, digitally printed one-to-one communications programs.