UK printer JDP has recorded a 1400% growth in digital impressions since installing an HP Indigo 100K in spring 2021, helping the company win new contract business as a result across a range of markets.

The Hampshire based business – previously known as John Dollin Printing Services before being acquired by Venn Holdings – purchased the press as part of a strategy to create a technology focused printing group active in labels, packaging and commercial print.

JDP has been looking to redefine the break-even point of digital to analogue products, and to fully utilise automation to drive operational excellence through its now market leading business. These were contributing factors to its HP Indigo 100K investment. The result saw the JDP achieve 5.1 million B2 impressions in September this year across its 12000 and 100K Indigo digital presses. This compares to 350,000 B2 impressions in February.

The increased capacity will be used to create strong partnerships in both B2B and B2C markets, bringing the ability to scale up production with minimal labour costs.

Anthony Thirlby, director at Venn Holdings, commented, ‘Our target of 10% compound growth per week in digital is on track and September was another new benchmark set, with 1.3 million impressions on extended shift, 257K sheets printed, and 25% run rate month-on-month growth.’

Since installing the HP Indigo 100K, JDP has also gone from 0% to 94% automation, processing 3172 jobs in a month – up from 275 –, and from an average of three to 266 jobs in the queue.

Mr Thirlby said, ‘A huge contributor to our growth is our ‘smart factory’, which is essentially the automation of our whole print process from order transaction to the end of the operational process.  We utilise our Venntura software platform to ensure all upstream and commercial decision-making operations are automated to deliver the maximum throughput.

‘We only use extended day shifts, as opposed to running double day shifts or 24/7 like other PSPs do. That’s mainly because of the ‘smart factory’, as automation is absolutely the key alongside developing the best team to deliver the significant opportunities to the business.

Andy Rae, a fellow director at Venn Holdings and JDP, said, ‘We view our business as a hybrid operation based on a utilising technology to ensure the minimal operating cost per product, this business model had delivered a 480% growth in revenue since purchase. These latest assets are complementary, and we plan to continuously grow both. The digital assets are helping us to free up capacity from our offset machines, to add work that is more suitable by nature to the analogue process.’

Peter Jolly, HP Industrial UK and Ireland country manager, added, ‘We’re hugely proud of the incredible results JDP has experienced since installing the HP Indigo 100K digital press. It is pushing boundaries that, in turn, are helping the industry realise the productivity efficiencies, as well as the cost savings associated with the migration from analogue to digital.’