printmonthly PrintMonthlyMagazine printmonthly_signlink KIT & CONSUMABLES | NEWS 14 website: www.printmonthly.co.uk November | December 2025 - Issue 357 UK print specialist, Bluetree Group, has made further equipment investments to boost its output with the purchase of a RENZ Inline 500 Classic punching and binding machine and has also become the first company in the UK to install a IGS Cobalt SP800 single-pass printer. The RENZ Inline 500 was acquired predominantly for outputting personalised products such as photobooks, calendars, and wire-bound books. According to Plockmatic Group, which purchased RENZ in July, the 500 Classic will be producing around 35,000 calendars a week at Bluetree’s Rotheram-based facility, which has an estimated £60m turnover and employs 320 staff, of whom 250 work in production. The latest kit purchase is part of a wider investment programme from Bluetree which is aiming to maximise its production capabilities. In September Bluetree became the first UK company to install the IGS Cobalt SP800 printer from International Graphic Supplies (IGS), which it purchased to expand its production capabilities for packaging and point-of-sale (POS). The press boasts a speed of up to 30m/min, reportedly producing over 5,000 corrugated boxes per hour with a maximum material size of 800mm x 2500mm and a maximum image size of 594mm x 2500mm. In June, the company also installed a Titanium 330-R label cutter and a Cobalt SP800 single-pass printer, again from IGS. Bluetree had initial discussions with RENZ UK at Hunkeler Innovationdays in February. After visiting the RENZ headquarters in Germany, the deal – which includes roundthe-clock service and support – was finalised in August. Speaking about the purchase, Mark Young, managing director of Bluetree Group, says: “The acquisition of RENZ by Plockmatic Group has further cemented our great, long-standing relationship. It provides reassurance thanks to a great support network behind the companies.” Plockmatic and RENZ demonstrated a range of solutions side-by-side at the recent Print Show exhibition at the NEC Birmingham. Speaking to Print Monthly at the event, Ed Hudson, general manager of Morgana Systems, spoke about the success that they had at The Print Show, saying: “The response from the show has been with people’s chequebooks: we’ve over-exceeded our targets in terms of selling equipment on the stand, and that means genuinely cold-selling the equipment as opposed to things being teed up. “That’s really refreshing and exciting, and we’ve significantly more than paid for our presence here. Shows like this are an integral part of our overall marketing mix and it’s important we continue to do them, to show our wares to a diverse audience.” Bluetree Group continues to invest in new kit By Jonathan Pert [L to R] Mark Young, MD at Bluetree Group, and Peter Flynn, MD at IGS, with the Cobalt SP800 Delta Group completes testing of Speedset Orca The Delta Group, has completed beta testing of the new Agfa SpeedSet Orca, a single-pass, water-based digital press which claims to be “the most productive B1 inkjet press on the market.” The Delta Group became the first company in the world to trial the SpeedSet Orca in 2024. After a successful installation and testing phase, the press is now reportedly making daily production runs and will soon begin shift work, which Agfa highlights as a major milestone in the Orca’s journey to full commercial availability. Primarily aimed at the packaging market, the Orca offers reported top speeds of up to 11,000 B1 sheets per hour. Martin Shipp, chief operating officer at The Delta Group, says: “We had high hopes for the new press and we are delighted to see that it has exceeded them. “We can run jobs that we would have traditionally run on our offset lines, giving us much more flexibility on the production floor without compromising quality.” The Orca handles a range of substrates including paper, microflute, and folding cartons Bakergoodchild invests in Canon presses UK mailing house, bakergoodchild, has invested in new Canon imagePRESS V1350 and varioPRINT 140 digital presses, aiming to significantly enhance its production capabilities. The new devices were purchased to elevate print quality and unlock new opportunities across bakergoodchild’s direct and transactional mail customer base. According to the company, demand for high-quality printed communications has rebounded in recent years, as brands increasingly seek to complement their digital marketing and communications with tactile, physical experiences. To meet this growing customer appetite, bakergoodchild turned to Canon to replace legacy devices that had become unreliable and inefficient. Since installing the imagePRESS V1350 and varioPRINT 140, bakergoodchild has seen an uplift in productivity and received positive customer feedback, with one customer reportedly already committing to an additional 160,000 booklets next year and forecasting significant growth moving forward. The imagePRESS V1350 offers 2400dpi with a maximum speed of 135ppm By Jonathan Pert By Jonathan Pert
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