Monro has installed a Roland VersaUV LEC-330 UV LED belt printer, enabling the packaging specialist to offer substantially more complete mock-ups to its customers.

Working with a broad range of retail brands, both domestic and global, the Leicestershire-based company develops packaging products from retail shopping bags and cosmetics containers, to branded packing materials for e-commerce goods. Until recently, the company was either sourcing complete packaging samples from international print service providers – a process that could take over four weeks – or showing its customers mock-ups that were not finished.

However, since January 2019 the Roland VersaUV S-Series has been producing accurate samples at a significantly faster turnaround, thanks to an extensive colour gamut, wide material compatibility and fast production speeds. The printer can print CMYK, white and gloss onto practically any roll-to-roll, flexible or rigid substrate or object up to 200mm in height and 100kg/sqm in weight. The VersaUV S-Series is also available in a flatbed version, with several configurations available.

Andy Turner, packaging designer at Monro, visited Roland DG’s Creative Centre in Clevedon, UK to see the VersaUV S-Series in the steel, and commented, ‘The demonstration of the S-Series blew my mind.

‘I was invited to run tests printing a white design onto some black recycled polythene bags I had brought with me and it was amazing. What we can print on now using the S-Series is extensive: we can print directly to tissue paper for inside shoeboxes and gift boxes, personalise leather-bound notebooks with initials – no other machine can do that. The capabilities are endless.’

Mr Turner added that direct-to-substrate ability delivers enormous potential for creating impact in packaging, and through what he calls ‘the theatre of opening the box’.

‘When you receive an e-commerce package the outside is normally plain brown corrugate, but when you open the box you can add the ‘wow’ factor in the form of really colourful designs. Using the S-Series, we can create that same effect for our customers by showing them accurate mock-ups of their finished packaging rather than asking them to use some imagination. You can really knock their socks off.

‘It’s a great aid to our salespeople and of course gives us an advantage over our competition.’