FastAnt Selects HP Scitex FB7600 at drupa after Large-Format Solution Passes 'Pepsi Challenge'

HP has announced that full-service marketing fulfilment provider, FastAnt, has finalized its purchase of an HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press to sharpen its service offering and deliver an in-house POP/POS capability to its retail customer base.

Leicester, UK-based, FastAnt, an existing HP Indigo digital press customer and a subsidiary of offset-litho print company, Taylor Bloxham Ltd, made the investment after reaching a 'critical mass' in the volume of POS work it had hitherto outsourced to other suppliers. This dependency invariably impacted on workflow and meant that the company relied on other parties before it could distribute materials to its clients.

Having submitted artwork to three manufacturers of large format printers, and viewed up-close demonstrations of their respective devices, FastAnt selected the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press based on its combination of speed, quality and upgradeability.

"We only started looking in earnest for an in-house large format printer in March, but made sure that we had thoroughly done our homework before approaching the three short-listed suppliers," said Matthew Wennington, FastAnt's managing director. "As a result, we had an extremely clear idea of exactly what we needed.

"I consider it my obligation to focus on making sure we are as efficient as possible and that we don't have money tied up in equipment unless it's working very effectively for us. As a result, we only invest in something once we are absolutely certain that it will pay dividends for us," added Wennington.

As part of FastAnt's evaluation process, different artwork for different substrates, based on real life customer requirements, was created and sent to each supplier to print. When the samples were returned, Wennington assembled FastAnt's design and POS sales teams to view the results, having first obscured the manufacturer's names.

"This internal 'Pepsi challenge' resulted in the HP Scitex FB7600 consistently scoring the highest on every printed sample we displayed to our sales team, and as these are the guys that would eventually have to sell, that was effectively decision made," he explained.

In addition to the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press' high visual quality of printed output, FastAnt was impressed at its ability to handle a wide range of different substrates - including those generally considered to be difficult. During these demos Wennington witnessed the press' performance first-hand:

"One media type that we use in high amounts is corrugated board," he continued. "I was stunned by the FB7600 press' ability to handle horrible corrugated material, which proved troublesome for the other devices we looked at and required the operator to intervene continually to free it and re-set the printer.

"Part of the sample designs we submitted to HP included those printed onto corrugated board using the highest saturation level. The FB7600 printed around 100 straight-off in about an hour and without skipping a beat, so we knew if it could handle that, it could handle any substrate we threw at it," he added.

For FastAnt, the HP Scitex FB7600 Industrial Press' ability to firmly tick the right boxes in terms of speed and quality was paramount. This was important and, says Wennington, highlights the capabilities of large format digital printing to the company's parent offset printing business, Taylor Bloxham.