Established four decades ago in London, Baker Labels has just invested in its fourth HP Indigo digital press to keep up with demand from its trade printer customers, and there are more purchases on the horizon. Neel Madsen went to speak to managing director, Steve Baker.
The offices at Baker Labels are a hive of activity. As the family-run company celebrates its 40th anniversary of supplying labels to the industry, plans are afoot to continue its investment in new presses and machinery. A few familiar faces from the flexo industry wave as I walk past, but today I am here to see the most recent digital installation, an HP Indigo WS6600, the latest addition to the ever expanding family of presses housed in the company’s modern facilities in Brentwood, in Essex.
Clear choice
The new investment was one born out of necessity. ‘We were running double shifts on our existing WS6000 three weeks out of four,’ said managing director Steve Baker, whose family first founded the label company in 1973 in London’s King’s Cross before later moving to Walthamstow in the East End. ‘As good as the machine is, we just couldn’t take the risk that it broke down without having adequate backup. With a digital press, you are running 25 to 30 jobs a day, and that is a lot of customers to have to let down if it goes wrong. We were sailing too close to the wind and we knew we needed to invest.’
Being so familiar with the Indigo technology, Mr Baker did not hesitate in putting his money down for a fourth HP (the company has had a ws4500 and still runs a ws4050 bought in 2005). The choice was a WS6600 digital press, which runs at 30 m/min in four colour mode, 40 m/min in enhanced productivity mode (EPM) and 60 m/min when printing one or two colours. The EPM prints with only CMY with the print server converting CMYK jobs to just three colours thereby increasing print speed by 33%. And installation was quick. The order was put in on January 9, the press arrived just 12 days later and was up and running within the next four, explained Mr Baker.
Breaking records
Clearly, this is a company that has the right vision and the recipe for a winning formula. It supplies almost solely to the trade, and this, said Mr Baker, keeps him on his toes. ‘We want to give our customers a good experience,’ he continued. ‘It is harder dealing with printers as customers because they know their trade, but it keeps us at a good level in terms of quality. It is important that we live up to those expectations and produce top quality labels. We believe that the HP Indigos are the best solution for us.’
Last year was an almost record year for the company while this January has definitely broken all records, so the new press was certainly needed, and there is much more work on the horizon according to Mr Baker. Further capacity will be added this coming June when a new Nilpeter FB-3, 13″ eight colour flexo press is being installed.
Read the full story in the April issue of Digital Labels & Packaging
