Sydney-based trade supplier Graph-Pak has posted a record $1.5 million in sales for October with seven commercial and trade printers signing up for new laminating equipment and spot UV machines.
“Business had been relatively slow but we’ve had a fantastic October and basically we’ve done a year’s budget in a month, with sales of more than $1.5 million,” said managing director Tom Ralph. “All the projects had been on the radar for a while but it was strange for them all to fall around the same time. All of the buyers are in Melbourne and Sydney and installations will start in January 2016 and continue through to April.
“These printers have all seen the benefits of raising the bar and are upgrading from low quality equipment they bought cheaply in the last few years as they dabbled with in-house finishing. Four printers bought new Autobond laminators – the Maserati of laminating machines – and we’ve now sold more than a hundred Autobonds since we started nine years ago. Two companies have opted for the ever faithful D&K Europa A2, which at $50,000 is incredibly good value for those happy to run up to 20 MPM, and another printer decided on the digital spot UV Autobond.”
Demand for spot UV systems has jumped over the past six months, said Ralph. “We’ve had five customers from Australia visit Autobond's UK facility for tests, trials and evaluations. The digital spot UV Autobond series starts at 360 wide, then 520 wide, 760 wide and then to 1050 wide. These machines can be sold inline with an Autobond laminator and equipped with a foiler for one-pass everything.
“The Autobond laminators and Spot UV gear are heavy duty systems designed for virtually continuous performance but also designed bespoke to suit individual customers needs, which could be simply one or two sheets or up to one million. As print becomes increasingly specialised, with overall volumes down but quality up, the amount of pages being laminated is increasing and spot UV is becoming pretty much standard."