Inkjet & Digital Printing
EDWARDTHOMPSON INVESTS IN SCREEN TRUEPRESS JET520 TO LAUNCH A NEW GENERATION OF BINGO TICKETS
Tuesday 09. March 2010 - Company launches personalised and localised full-colour ticket books to revolutionise UK bingo industry
edwardthompson, Sunderland, has invested over £2m in a high-speed, full-colour Screen Truepress Jet520 inkjet web press and near-line Hunkeler finishing system to launch a new generation of Bingo Ticket Books into the UK.
The largest supplier to the UK’s bingo industry, edwardthompson has the capacity to produce 200 million bingo tickets a week. There are 450 bingo clubs and until now they were restricted to using standard format generic ticket books with limited colours and variability. Using the digital capabilities and flexibility of Screen’s Truepress Jet520 press and Hunkeler finishing, the company has launched ‘3rd Generation Bingo’ (3GB) which introduces full-colour, fully-personalised Bingo Ticket Books into the industry for the first time.
The digital print process opens up the opportunity to devise many new ‘added-value’ bingo games which can include images as well as numbers, enabling edwardthompson to design a highly bespoke bingo book to exact requirements and with almost limitless options and in full colour. Clubs can tailor books for each hall with local advertising, seasonal themes, coupons, information, images and sponsorship to boost commercial opportunities. Plus, turnaround times have been cut considerably and books can be designed and delivered in a matter of days if required.
“Like many other leisure industries the UK Bingo market is going through challenging times and we have responded by investing in innovation and innovative technology to re-energise the market,” says Paddy Cronin, Managing Director of edwardthompson. “We carefully researched the market and found the Screen/Hunkeler combination to offer the best all-round, proven and consistent solution from all the technologies on offer, backed by the expertise to implement a complicated project for us. The solution is very cost-effective which is important in this price-sensitive market.
“Combining the expertise of our game designers and the capabilities of the Screen press we can create myriad new colourful games to put the fun back into paper-based bingo – still preferred by 85% of players. We can now add new games and new ways to win with more depth that would just not have been possible before. It improves both player experience and bingo club revenues and early reaction is extremely positive,” says Paddy.
Gala Bingo is the first company to adopt 3GB across 112 clubs nationwide.
The Screen Truepress Jet520 is the world’s leading continuous feed, single-pass, inkjet printer with over 200 engines shipped worldwide from the factory in Kyoto, Japan including 21 engines in the UK alone. Featuring Epson’s latest multi-tone Piezo inkjet greyscale drop on demand printheads and water-based inks, this highly reliable and versatile press produces quality colour results on an ever expanding range of paper stocks which now include gloss and matt coated materials. The roll-fed paper feeding system gives users the flexibility to handle high-speed and high volume print runs at 840 colour pages or 128m/min and 520 mm web width with a single engine, or 1680 colour pages and 256m/min with a duplex device. The technology allows edwardthompson to print complete full-colour Bingo Books sequentially including trim and glue. This process allows higher levels of security and book identification, not possible with a hybrid production approach.
The Screen project teams in the UK and at our Print on Demand centre in Amsterdam have worked closely with the client to prove this process to their customer and then worked to a tight deadline to fulfill a national contract. Says Carl Nolan, Business Development Manager EMEA at Screen, “The Truepress Jet520 technology has represented a natural progression for Screen and is the result of over 60 years expertise in prepress colour management and a reputation for robust and reliably engineered products. We are meeting the market’s growing need for mature, reliable and quality print engines that can drive new business opportunities successfully. Our latest digital web press developments will be unveiled at Ipex which will expand our strength in the industrial print market still further.”
edwardthompson fields a team of designers, mathematicians and account handlers who are Bingo specialists. It works closely with customers to devise new designs or total re-brands and deliver them into the fields very quickly. In addition to its bingo specialisation the company provides design, production and implementation for a wide range of marketing print services backed by extensive litho, digital and wide format print technology, finishing and fulfillment.