Inkjet & Digital Printing

HP Indigo Techology Enables FOTO.com to Expand into the Digital Market

Tuesday 25. November 2008 - HP today announced that print service provider (PSP) FOTO.com, based in Louvan-la-Neuve, Belgium has successfully used its two HP Indigo press 5500s to launch a digital photo print service.

FOTO.com, part of the Fotocom brand, was established four years ago and currently employs 75 people. The company installed its first two HP Indigo presses a year ago, purchasing two HP Indigo press 5500s. It specialises in producing a range of photo-specialty items including prints and enlargements, photobooks, calendars, greetings cards, posters and canvas prints for professional and amateur photographers. The company currently produces two million traditional photo prints a day.

Capable of printing 4,000 four-colour A4 sheets per hour the HP Indigo press 5500 is designed to maximise productivity, featuring continuous printing with a four-drawer paper feeder to reduce the amount of time spent loading paper into the press. The on-press fast ink replacement system maximises the efficiency of the press increasing uptime.

“The photo market has been expanding rapidly and we wanted to invest in a press that would allow us to increase our digital capacity and fulfill our customers’ orders quickly, so we installed two HP Indigo press 5500s,” said Panos Petropoulos, chief executive officer, FOTO.com. “Our new HP Indigo presses are currently running 16 hours per day, five days per week to cater for demand for our digital services. With the capacity of our new presses we are able turnaround orders within 48-hours offering a same week delivery service on all our products.”

The HP Indigo press 5500 uses HP’s liquid ink technology and high definition dot placement technology to enable printing at resolutions up to 1200 dpi, ideal for the production of photo-specialty items.

“We have been very happy with the quality of print produced by our HP Indigo presses,” said Petropoulos. “Our digitally printed personalised products compliment the prints that we produce traditionally. Our new presses are vital for helping us become a one stop shop for all our customers photo-printing requirements.”