John Stevenson, owner of two Kall Kwik franchises in Glasgow, has always been a keen advocator of large format print technology.

His first Kall Kwik centre at Kinning Park in South Glasgow, set up eight years ago, was one of the earliest adopters of large format output.

 “We had an Encad Novajet,” says John, “and I was very pleased with it because it bought in a lot of business. However I always felt that large format output had huge potential and that there was a much bigger market place out there than the Encad allowed us to address. So when the time came to increase our large format capacity, I didn’t feel it was right just to go for the latest generation of something we already had. I wanted to tap into that larger market, although at the time I wasn’t sure what it was.”

It was about this time that John received an invitation to a Roland DG UK Open Day. Not knowing very much about the company, but having some rare free time, he went along, and the rest as they say is history. 

“I was totally elated that day,” says John. “When I saw the VersaCAMM SP-540V in action I just knew that I had found what I had been looking for. The quality and speed were really good but what really hit was its versatility – the opportunities it opened up were enormous.”

After installing the VersaCAMM SP-540V at the beginning of May, John then decided to visit Sign UK in Birmingham to expand his knowledge, and came to the conclusion that large format printing and the signage markets had converged, and it was that point of intersection that held the opportunities for his Kall Kwik franchises.

“At Sign UK I also realised that Roland DG was the biggest name there. I hadn’t known it when I went to the Roland open day, but I had inadvertently stumbled across the market leader. At the show I saw lots of things that really opened up my eyes, and when I returned to Glasgow I came back and told my staff that things were about to change, and they really have.”

One of the first big jobs carried out on the VersaCAMM SP-540V was vinyl signage for none other than the Scottish parliament. “It was for the parliament’s café, “ recalls John. “I go to a networking meeting every so often and while I was there someone asked me what my business could do that others can’t, so I started talking about the VersaCAMM and all its applications. By then end of the event, someone came up to me with an order! I went home worried. They wanted 6ft long by 3ft wide signs for the café. I had to learn very quickly how to apply vinyl, and because this was all new, I really felt I had to do the job myself!

“We’ve also produced all the 16ft ground-side signage for the Patrick Thistle football ground in Glasgow – a job that we simply would not even have contemplated before installing the VersaCAMM.“

The VersaCAMM SP-540V has broadened the company’s business base, providing it with an applications portfolio that is second to none and which in the past would have been unthinkable - it is now producing display graphics, banners, signs, labels, vehicle wraps, point-of-sale and window graphics on a regular basis.  And, offers a wide range of specialty printing such as blinds, soft furnishings, fridge magnets, stickers and even clothing.

In a nutshell, the Roland VersaCAMM SP-540V has made John’s Kall Kwik franchise a true one-stop shop. Customers simply don’t need to go anywhere else for their print, display graphics, promotional and signage needs.

Now John has purchased another VersaCAMM SP-540V for his second Kall Kwik franchise on the Great Western Road in the centre of Glasgow, an enterprise that he has owned for a year.

 “I purchased exactly the same machine for the Western Road franchise because the strain of production was weighing too heavily on the staff at Kinning Park,” says John.

John employs eleven staff between his two Kall Kwik businesses.

“Kall Kwik is entirely different now to the walk-in copy shop that it was in the early days,” he says.  “It is a business to business, design and print company, offering a full design to delivery service. For example, our biggest client at Kinning Park is the Glasgow Science Centre, in Central Glasgow it’s the BBC and then there are hundreds of smaller companies in between. Not many people know this but Kall Kwik is the fifth largest design organisation in the UK employing some 250 designers.”

While litho printing accounts for the largest part of John’s businesses, large format output which accounted for 15% of turnover pre VersaCAMM has now doubled and continues to grow.

Says John, “One of the best and most significant things I have done in recent months is to discover Roland DG and the VersaCAMM SP-540V because of the amount of opportunities it has afforded us. In the past, I could always see the potential of large format and Roland DG has helped me exceed this vision.”