With Currie Group turning 70 this year it is fair to say the company that has built its solid reputation in the market on understanding the needs of business, knows the financial pressures that many printers in Australia and New Zealand face. So, with that in mind Currie Group is theming its considerable PrintEx19 stand around automation to demonstrate how using the printing and finishing equipment it supplies can help Australian and New Zealand printers reduce costs while also producing quality work in less time.
The big-ticket item will be the HP Indigo 12000 HD Digital Press which through its new high definition function and broader range of colours, including light cyan, light magenta and light black, has taken the possibilities of what the Indigo can do to a whole new level. “The HP Indigo 12000 HD takes the image quality of print up another level,” Currie Group sales and marketing director Phillip Rennell says.
“Indigo has always focussed on offset being the benchmark and it has always been the closest digital process to offset but the 12000 HD takes it to another level and in many cases beyond what offset can do particularly in the photographic and image areas. “We are focussing a lot more on automation and removing touch points from standard processes in printing so we will connect the Horizon SmartStacker to the press inline which will deliver finished product out the back ¬ so you will go from a blank sheet to a finished piece,” he said.
A robot will also be integrated taking book blocks from the back of the SmartStacker and carrying them to the Horizon BQ-480 Perfect Binder in another example of automation advances and how it can benefit the workplace and bring operating costs down through less labour.
For those looking for a smaller entry into the market, the HP Indigo 7900 Digital Press will also be on show fitted with an inline purpose-built Horizon bookletmaker which will demonstrate in real-time the speed and ease of producing finished booklets in a single pass.
“What we’ve tried to do is maximise the use of the space to show some key solutions rather than bring in one of everything. We are actually focused around the very latest developments from HP Indigo, from Horizon and from our key partners to really look at what is the best and the latest offerings in those solutions,” Rennell explains.
“We need to look at automating all of that because in Australia we are a very high labour cost market and if you can remove labour touch points you can actually build a significant cost benefit.
“Our market is under enormous pressure to compete with markets with lower labour rates than us,
whether it is Singapore, Indonesia or China so to remove touchpoints and build automation it means you are actually, creating a different value proposition.”
Currie Group see printing trade shows as integral to its business and a way that keeps business owners engaged in what possibilities exist for them to expand their product offering and diversify into new areas. It may not be culturally the norm in Australia to just walk in and throw money down to make a purchase on the spot, but Rennell says many trade show goers are there to ruminate on a purchase decision and continue their thinking about where they are wanting to take their business. To cater for this Currie Group will also have the Horizon StitchLiner Mark III which Rennell says has been popular as it increases productivity in booklet making specifically through automation and through other options to make it possible to produce A4 landscape booklets at high speed. In the label’s arena, Currie Group will also show and demonstrate the HP Indigo 6900 Digital Press which will be complemented by an ABG Digicon finishing line for labels which takes the rolls and coats and die cuts them before rewinding them back on the roll ready for labelling on bottles. “Bringing in the label press is designed to demonstrate to those who want to build a labels business and enhance their product offering,” he said. Rennell said customers will also be able to see an expanded range of brand security authentication and verification technologies that have been developed by HP to help brand owners protect the authenticity of their products, along with a showcase of applications that will drive value-add to print. “It is becoming a very big topic, so everybody is looking at it with a lot of interest,” Rennell said.
1800 338 131 for more info or visit http://www.curriegroup.com.au/
