The next acquisition for his business was confirmed when Peter Brown saw his “omen” in Germany.
While admiring the printing exhibition’s acres of flash and dazzle equipment at the DRUPA show in Düsseldorf, Peter spotted a digital flatbed printer that seemed familiar. He had travelled to Germany to research his company’s next acquisition and what he found confirmed his decision. “I’d seen the Acuity in Australia then found it again at DRUPA” explains Peter. “I was impressed both times so the decision was made.”
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The Acuity printer |
Peter Brown and his brother Philip started their printing company, Mr B Screenprinting, in their garage around 25 years ago. The unusual Mr B name came about because all the other names the boys chose were already taken, so on the spot Philip’s wife came up with Mr B and registered it. Memorable name aside, Mr B Screenprinting has become one of the major printing operations in Victoria, doing work for local customers and nationally for such big players as Carlton & United Breweries, Australia Post and the National Bank’s 700 sites.
“We are a screen printing and signage company producing corflutes, metal and plastic signs and decals. We excel in service and delivery,” says Peter. “We also seem to do well at the oddball jobs, where you have a combination of digital printing, screen printing and computer graphics, and we can produce the job because we do all three here.”
The business has up to nine staff and Peter is quite certain about his people’s strengths. “Versatility. Our staff can do everything in the factory, that’s how we train them.” In addition to the Acuity, the business has two roll-fed digital printing machines and two semi-automatic screen printing machines.
Quality product and on-time delivery from the new Acuity UV flatbed Mr B recently installed the new Acuity HD2504 wide format UV flatbed printer from Fujifilm Sericol. “We’re all about quality, not speed, but we make sure we deliver on time. The Acuity does all that for us,” says Peter.
The Acuity is the latest breakthrough in wide format UV digital imaging technology, offering photographic quality printing that provides a quick return on investment. Peter was taken by the simplicity of the Acuity. “It’s made a lot of the jobs we would do in the past push-button,” explains Peter. “For example, in the past we would have printed onto a vinyl then mounted it on a panel. Now we print direct to the panel. A lot less effort to get the finished product.”
Peter believes the Fujifilm Sericol staff were very professional by keeping him informed and the training was excellent. He nominated specifically Scott Meltzer (Technical Sales Representative) and Matthew Philp (Digital Applications Specialist) for their service work.
Peter also believes the Acuity gives Mr B the platform to go after new business. “We can now produce certain things in different ways than we could in the past. It makes the production fast, simple and works very well to help us do what we do best – price and delivery.”
“We began as a backyarder and now we have some of Australia’s biggest companies ringing us. And we’ve never had a sales rep on the road.”
What does Peter see for the future in the industry? “We were pushed to go to computer-cut vinyls, which played havoc with the sign market. Then digital played havoc with the screen printing market. Now flatbed will change the whole market and how we do things. We’re on the front foot with the Acuity.”
Fujifilm Sericol Australia
www.fujifilmsericol.com.au
Mr B Screenprinting
http://www.mrbscreenprinting.com.au/
