Greens ‘The Signmaker” Ltd is one of the North of England’s leading sign manufacturers.  It designs, manufactures and installs high quality signs for retail and manufacturing industries and local authorities both nationally and internationally. Established for over 40 years, this Hull-based family business is a fascinating example of the history of commercial signage. Starting out by offering traditional hand painted signs, and later screenprinting, the company evolved into vinyl cutting, buying the earliest primitive vinyl cutters available.  The vinyl side of the business grew at the expense of screenprinting work, but according to Chris Green, MD, it was the advent of Flexface – a seamless, wide width flexible substrate – that transformed the business in the late ‘80s.

In 2002 the company bought into digital with the purchase of a basic eco jet machine, which allowed its knowledge and experience to develop. In 2005 Greens realised that it needed to invest further to achieve the quality, productivity and versatility it required to ensure market competitiveness.  “We did a lot of research into digital print systems on the market,” said Chris. “We went to Sign UK earlier in the year to compare and contrast. We liked what we saw on the Roland stand and ended up going to Clevedon, Roland’s HQ, to really put the machines through their paces. “What really impressed us about the Roland systems apart from the quality aspect was the flexibility of materials you can put through them. With previous systems we had used in-house, we had been somewhat restricted by the type of materials and substrates that could be printed, and we found ourselves to be tied in with a particular supplier because of this. However, Roland is very open and has profiles for most suppliers’ substrates."

The AdvanceJet AJ-1000 is Roland’s widest printer to date. Designed to deliver high levels of productivity with fuss-free minimal maintenance, the AJ-1000 features new industrial strength EcoXtreme inks for sustained durability and serious performance for outdoor applications. Printing at 2.6 metres wide and at precision speeds of 45 m²/hr, the AJ-1000 is the perfect production printer for a range of outdoor graphics including banners, billboards, front and backlits, and vehicles graphics amongst many others.

To complement this system Greens also bought a Roland SolJet Pro II SC 545 EX. Although smaller - printing up to widths of 1.34 metres - this machine gives added flexibility to Greens’ production with its ‘print and cut’ facility. Using Eco-Sol MAX inks, it has a resolution of up to 1440dpi and is ideal for high quality reproduction of artwork and photographs. “The SC is a great machine and gives us not only added production capacity, but also the option of photo quality print if the client demands it,” said Chris.

Chris has nothing but positive comments to make about the before and after support afforded to his company by Roland and its agent in Hull, Mike Antrum at Solutions II.  “The service we have received has been fantastic,” he says. “Roland’s agent Mike Antrum, who is local to us in Hull, has been great. Any problems that we have encountered have been sorted out immediately. We went to Clevedon twice for training, but for any difficulties that we have encountered so far Mike has been there, sorting out those questions and issues as they arise.”

With the installation of Roland technology, Chris expects the business to once again take a leap on to the next level. “We’ve been running these systems for five months now, “ he says. “And they have already had a huge impact on our business. We are a lot more competitive and they are attracting more business for us.  We are still a sign manufacturer and up to now our digital output has been aligned to signage customers. What’s really exciting to us is the fact that we can now offer our digital expertise to a much wider market.”