East Yorkshire-based printing and signage company Greens the Signmakers has revealed how its investment in an HP Latex R2000 printer has helped the business take on new work in profitable markets and significantly enhanced its environmental credentials.
Celebrating its 60th anniversary in business in 2023, Greens offers a wide range of printing and signage services to customers both locally and across the UK, with the business counting the likes of Halfords, Carpet Right and Currys among its high-profile clients.
Managing Director Lawrence Green is the third generation of the family to lead the business, building on the desire for the company to continue to expand and grow, as well as add new services to its offering in order to satisfy changing demand across its customer base.
Equally as strong as this drive to succeed is a will to establish the company as one of the leading eco-conscious printing businesses in the UK. Inspired by Charlotte, his eight-year-old daughter, Lawrence has sought out ways for Greens to grow as a business while improving its environmental credentials at the same time.
A key part of the strategy was to invest in new equipment that would deliver both of these goals. Lawrence reached out to HP for advice and after being talked through a number of options by HP’s expert staff, Lawrence and the Greens team soon identified the HP Latex R2000 as the ideal solution.
“The R2000 is the perfect all-rounder for us as a business and was the obvious choice when it came to making the investment,” Lawrence said. “Once up and running, it will just keep going. We tend to do a lot of flatbed work in the day, while we will leave a roll in to print overnight, meaning when we arrive at work the next day, we have something to work on straight away.
“As well as being a great printer, it also produces work that can be recycled due to the fact it runs on HP Latex inks. These water-based inks do not change the properties of the material we are printing on the machine. For example, if a material was flame-proof before printing, it will still be after being printed with HP Latex ink, or if it was recyclable, it will remain so when printed.
“In contrast, with our UV kit, when we run recyclable materials through it, it is much harder, and sometimes not possible at all, to recycle after it is printed. Now we are running the new R2000, the vast majority of what we supply doesn’t have to end up in landfill; we can control the full life of the product, which was not possible before.”
Lawrence added that such has been the impact of the HP Latex R2000 that not only has it helped the company improve its environmental image, it has also allowed Greens to take on more work in one of the industry’s most profitable areas – vehicle graphics.
“We were previously doing some work in this area, but with the R2000, the quality of the print as it stretches over the vehicle is really fantastic,” Lawrence said. “It has provided another steady stream of income for us, which was a pleasant surprise.”