Aztec Signs invests to prepare for business handover

Leeds-based Aztec Signs has bought an EFI Vutek h3 3.2m hybrid printer in preparation for founders Tom Wilton and Chris Jameson to hand over the business.

“Chris and I are very much seen as the business,” said Wilton, “but at some point, fairly soon, we’ll want to step back. We have a young workforce and they will be the people who will be taking the business forward and we’re putting them in a position where they can. The h3 is a choice for the next generation, it’s about moving the business forward without us, and I know that this printer will act as a safe pair of hands.” The Vutek h3 will replace the company’s EFI Vutek GS 3250 and according to Wilton, “is set to give us massive energy savings, and help us improve our environmental credentials.” He added: “But a key driver is a step-up in quality.” The h3 is Aztec’s Signs’ third generation EFI Vutek printer and has been on Wilton’s radar since Fespa 2018. “We did look at other machines, but we didn’t find anything that was comparable at the price point,” he said. The h3 - bought the h3 from CMYUK like the company’s previous Vuteks - will operate alongside its existing Esko X-44 digital cutting table installed 18 months ago, and also purchased from CMYUK. Wilton and Jameson founded Aztec Signs in 1988. Originally a slide presentation company, it was an early adopter of wide-format digital printing and now has a staff of eight at its premises on the outskirts of Leeds, servicing both trade and end-users. “During the last 30 years, we’ve been through a range of large-format printers in various guises from water-based machines through to solvent, UV and Latex, so we've got a pretty wide view of all the various technologies,” said Wilton. “We’ve been using EFI Vutek printers for 12 years now. A trip to the EFI demonstration facility gave us a thorough understanding of how the h3 printer works and we could really test our true requirements such as a solid red.” Wilton believes that the higher quality, greater capacity of the h3 will allow the company to strike out for greater volume jobs.