Portable trade display solutions provider, Very Displays, has purchased their first Agfa printer. An Avinci CX3200 dye-sublimation wide-format printer was installed at their Market Harborough production facility in February.
Richard Haslett, Print Manager at Very Displays, who has many years of dye-sub print experience said; “We were very diligent in our research for a new dye-sub machine and Agfa had lots to offer, but what stood out most was their overall openness and honesty when providing information throughout all stages of the selling process. It was refreshing and it convinced us to make the switch. We are very happy with our decision.”
Very Displays began in 2017 and was originally based in Leicester. Growth in the business resulted in expansion into several nearby units, so they consolidated into one 25,000 sq ft site in Market Harborough in 2020. Last year, to accommodate further growth, the office functions moved to a facility 3 miles away and this thriving business now employs 25 people across two sites.
"We were very diligent in our research for a new dye-sub machine and Agfa had lots to offer, but what stood out most was their overall openness and honesty when providing information throughout all stages of the selling process. It was refreshing and it convinced us to make the switch. We are very happy with our decision."
Very Displays supply portable display solution hardware and graphics predominantly to the UK trade market. They started out as an importer and supplier of display and event hardware, but quickly realised the opportunity to supply graphics to their trade customers as well, offering them the full display solution. They now have a UV printer and two 3.2 m dye-sub printers to support customer demand. Their demand for dye-sub has always been a big part of their print arm and the scale of it is increasing, not only with the growing trend for soft signage, but it has become a core area of their print expertise too. Many of their customers do not have a dye-sub department, which requires not only the printer but curing units and specialist finishing equipment, so prefer to source it all directly from Very Displays. The benefit of using textiles is the ability to wash and reuse them, they’re much easier to transport and they offer a much more modern and stylish end product.
The business sees their USP as being a strictly ‘Trade Only’ supplier that sticks to their core values and what they know! But the biggest USP by far, that they are rightly proud of, is their customer service support, where they have dedicated account managers by region that provide a personalised experience. They are also strongly committed to their Service Level Agreement that promises customers won’t wait any more than two hours for a reply to any enquiries, they’ll get product marketing support, next-day hardware delivery and product guarantees.
“Buying a new dye-sublimation printer was the biggest single investment I had made since I joined the business 4 years ago, so our diligence during the buying process was robust.” said MD Simon Boswell. “We looked at numerous machines, we had lots of print tests carried out to assess quality and we visited other Agfa printers to listen to their views on service and reliability. We wanted to step back and look not only at the machine but the service agreement, ink charges, running costs, the whole package. We also took advantage of the Agfa Finance package, which suited us perfectly. The process took us most of the Autumn period, with competitor counter offers coming through which all needed to be assessed. But in the end Agfa won the business because we were happy with the specification of the machine, the relationship with our sales contact Wesley Small and the honesty and openness from everyone we spoke to. It was ordered mid-December, installed in February with impressive follow-up training and we have been up and running for over a month.”
The new Agfa Avinci CX3200 3.2m wide dye sublimation roll-to-roll printer runs at a speed of up to 250 m² per hour. It requires offline fixation, so it doesn’t waste material and it uses eco-friendly Avinci 110 inks which have obtained the OEKO-TEX® ECO PASSPORT. This certification means that the inks, when combined with the right substrate and printing method, will have no harmful effect on human and environmental health.
"As we all drive to reduce our carbon footprint, this investment from Agfa helps us on our sustainable journey as a business. The machine itself is more energy efficient than the two it is replacing, and it is helping us to expand our range of fabric products."
Final word from Kirsty Corcoran, Marketing Manager at Very Displays; “As we all drive to reduce our carbon footprint, this investment from Agfa helps us on our sustainable journey as a business. The machine itself is more energy efficient than the two it is replacing, and it is helping us to expand our range of fabric products, especially tubular fabrics which is a growing area of our business. These tubular textiles pull over the aluminium framework and can be washed and reused at lots of events. It is certainly a big growth area for us and is helping us offer a more environmentally conscious solution for our clients.”
