Ricoh Europe, London, – UK cross media production specialists Datum signed the deal for a Ricoh Pro C9110 heavy duty colour sheetfed press on Ricoh's drupa 2016 stand in Hall 8a.

The £1.2m turnover operation, based in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, chose the printer as a like for like replacement but it is also looking forward to enjoying some new business benefits explains Scott Pearce, Managing Partner.

"We offer our clients a complete design solution with brand and campaign management as well as online and print content delivery," he says. "The press will help us to continue to provide that while at the same time increasing our capacity and making us more productive."

Before choosing the Ricoh system a thorough review of the solutions available in the market was undertaken. Mark Gamble, also Managing Partner says: "We began looking around three months ago at three to four options. We held print tests with everyone and narrowed it down to two presses."

Pearce adds: "We like the fact it can produce six pages A4 and the long sheet capability is a big plus point. We can go out and sell that and generate work. Its speed will also help us reduce the amount of offset work we are outsourcing. Longer runs can be cost-effectively produced in-house now. That cuts both costs and turnaround times. It also makes us more responsive.

"Our USP is grounded in helping our clients. We like to go to them with solutions. By having greater control of the print production we can spend more time in developing those solutions."

Flexible staffing is another benefit of the press, he says: "A lot more of our staff members will be able to run the press and that means we can work smarter and leaner."

Sustainability was a consideration for the ISO14001 accredited company that is also FSC certified. "We liked the fact it uses single phase electricity and less power," states Gamble. "It also has a smaller footprint."

Graham Moore, Director, Business Development, Ricoh Europe, says: "Datum and Ricoh share the same ethos – we both like to provide our clients with solutions that meet their needs. From day one of installation the Ricoh Pro C9110 will integrate seamlessly to start enabling Datum to offer an even more highly developed service offering."

The Ricoh Pro C9100 series runs at speeds up to 130ppm. It supports uncoated, textured and coated media up to 400gsm, as well as duplexed long sheet printing up to 700mm and even speciality media, such as super gloss, magnetic, transparent and synthetic.

An enhanced version of Ricoh's Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser technology provides image quality up to 1200 x 4800 dpi while high colour consistency is assured by Ricoh's automatic image feedback technology which provides continuous colour density calibration.

Maximum uptime is delivered via a liquid cooling system for continuous printing, enhanced ORUs (Operator Replaceable Units) and toner bottles, and media changes on the fly.