Fintech recently financed Sisonke, a digital print house in South Africa, in importing the Xerox IJP 2000 digital wide format printer, through Bytes Document Solutions (BDS), which has been in a three way partnership with Sisonke and Fintech since 2007.
Clive Slack the CEO of Sisonke explained the impact, ‘We experienced an explosion in growth since 2007 with a 300% year-on-year growth and expanded our client base to include major banks, finance houses, telecommunications companies and agencies.’
Sisonke have recently bought a multi-storey building in Selby allowing them to operate from a single premises. The Xerox IJP 2000 will facilitate further growth due to the increased quality, volume, turn-around time and lower price per page. The main function of the printer will be the printing of in-store posters.
These posters have traditionally had to be ordered in large quantities of 35 or more and well in advance when using a litho printer. The IJP 2000 has a print speed of seven A0 posters per minute with no drying time. With the new digital technology, any volume can be catered for easily and changes to the creative can be done at the last minute.
The high-speed printer can also be used for printing proofs, which is not possible with a litho press, so that colour corrections can be made before a print order is carried out. The capability of the IJP2000 to print up to 30 metres, opens up a variety of options to Sisonke’s clients, such as printing elevator or store-front wraps.
Having started off as a broker in 1999, bought by GTO in 2001 and buying their first colour printer in 2004, Sisonke are now a full-house operation who can take the print process from design to delivery.
Fintech has also financed five Xerox sheet fed digital presses for Sisonke, supplied by BDS, since 2007 which include the first generation iGen3 and the more recent iGen4, as well as two X1000’s. The iGen4 is possibly the world’s most productive digital press, it provides greater high-value output with less time-consuming manual processes.
The X1000 presses have a fifth colour which provides a wide colour gamut and they have an optional clear toner to apply spot or flood creative effects for vibrant images that brings prints to life. They can print with inline finishing used to produce saddle-stitched booklets such as brochures.
‘Each time we put a new machine down on our print floors, we get the work for it. We have a great relationship with Fintech whose finance deals always go through quickly. Working with Fintech and BDS is a pleasure as they both have a thorough knowledge of our industry and our particular requirements.
‘The equipment upgrades that our partnership has facilitated have allowed us to remain on the cutting edge of technology and streamline the work-flow from proof to press. We have our own design studio and have introduced a web to print portal, so that work can be proofed over a network and we also now have a mailing and data services division.
‘In order to stay in business these days, print houses have to offer a full spectrum service and we have expanded over the years to bring everything in-house. We are extending our operations to add packaging to our bouquet of printing services, now that we have the requisite equipment. Fintech has allowed us to become strategic partners to our clients and to live up to our slogan – we are more than just print,’ said Slack.
‘Our partnership with Fintech has proved to be of great advantage to BDS as we can offer clients rental options and get almost instant approval. The heavy-duty digital presses are valued well into the millions and thanks to Fintech our clients’ cash-flow is not debilitated by their equipment needs, leaving capital available for growth and expansion,’ said Paul Haglich, Marketing Manager at BDS.
