The Mercian Labels Group has completed its latest investment with the purchase and installation of a new Xeikon 3300 digital label press. The new press which is due to be commissioned shortly is the company’s second investment in Xeikon digital printing equipment.
Dr Adrian Steele, Managing Director of The Mercian Labels Group said: “Investing in a second Xeikon machine at this time in the economic cycle is the right decision for both our customers and us. We are in business to make money, and the increased capability of the Xeikon 3300 machine will bring a new dimension to our short-run labelling division, which will make us more profit.
“The increased four-colour speed with inline converting delivers a real productivity benefit to us as lead times from artwork approval to dispatch are now always under three days. Our workload in 2011 has been getting increasingly erratic and spiky, but that’s the way we like it as our competitors can't react as quickly as we can!
“The vibrancy of the colour matching with Xeikon’s QA-I toner is also an attraction, as is the 1200dpi resolution that more than meets the expectations of our market. By again committing to the Xeikon platform we believe that it gives us a genuine competitive advantage – we run the fastest short-run labelling service in the UK with a 98% on-time in-full (OTIF) performance, and with the Xeikon 3300 we can now also deliver the highest quality print to our customers. It’s a compelling offer to our 9,000 trade and end-user customers.”
The purchase decision was aided by Xeikon’s continued focus on working with conventional substrates, rather than the extra costs and production time incurred by applying coatings to printing materials, as well as the use of Xeikon’s X-800 workflow technology. “The X-800 system is something that our operational teams are already used to, and a solution that works well,” added Dr Steele.
Commenting on the purchase decision by The Mercian Labels Group, Filip Weymans, Xeikon’s Business development manager for labels and packaging products, said: “We are, of course, delighted that a company with such a high profile in the industry as The Mercian Labels Group has confirmed its commitment to Xeikon technology for the production of high quality printed self-adhesive labels. We see this as a vote for Xeikon’s reliability and ability to meet tight deadlines – a point of difference that this customer focuses on.”
The Mercian Labels Group of companies are market leaders in the manufacture of LabelLock seals, Gammatex radiation indicators, high volume variable data and barcode labels, bespoke high security label seals and short-run custom printed labels. They operate from two manufacturing sites in the UK and benefit from over 9,000 business customers, exporting to over 20 countries across 6 continents. The business prides itself on providing loyal customer service, and focuses on three day production turnaround for label orders from its short run labelling division. Mercian Labels is the preferred supplier of short-run labels to thousands of businesses throughout the UK.
The unique combination of 1200 x 3600 dpi addressability and 4-bit variable dot density offers rich colour depth and subtle contrasts. Sharp and crisp details can even enable the creation of micro text, an often used anti-counterfeiting tool. The Xeikon 3000 Series uses the Pericles screening library. The screen ruling can be adjusted for every image element, resulting in images of the highest quality that are pleasing to the eye. An inline densitometer allows users to calibrate the press to ensure uniform and accurate colours and colour consistency between jobs and between presses. The four process colours plus one of a range of standard or custom-made spot colours provide an extended colour gamut. Our one pass opaque white helps to create immaculate images on transparent and metallic label stock.
