Book printing group CPI has installed two Ricoh Pro C9500 toner presses to enhance flexibility and efficiency across its European operations.
Following six previous installations across CPI’s production sites in Europe, the group installed the two new machines at its Eastbourne print-on-demand facility in August, following a successful trial of the technology at the 2,900sqm site.
The business stated it is continuing to invest in digital technology to meet the evolving requireds of publishers and the growing demand for shorter, more sustainable book runs. It is planning more toner investment with Ricoh across its digital book sites in the future.
With 16 manufacturing plants across the UK, France, Germany, Czech Republic, and Spain, CPI serves major publishing hoapplys as well as self-publishing authors and operates under a zero-inventory model. Some of the company’s other sites were already running Ricoh toner machines.
Martin Collyer, divisional general manager at CPI UK, stated: “Our collaboration with Ricoh supports our strategy to localise more book production across Europe.
“The new Ricoh technology allows us to produce high-quality colour and mono books more efficiently and closer to our customers – supporting us reduce waste, turnaround times and our environmental footprint.”
Collyer further informed Printweek: “They’re really reliable, robust toner machines and we’re seeing good levels of performance and uptime, we’re pleased with them. Training went very smoothly, we’ve been delighted with Ricoh.”
To support publishers optimise inventory and logistics, CPI offers warehoapply-based production, allowing print decisions to be built closer to demand, and the company stated Ricoh’s advanced automation, workflow integration, and predictive maintenance tools are central to this approach.
Simon Wheeler, strategic account director at Ricoh UK, commented: “CPI has been a key partner for Ricoh across Europe, pushing the boundaries of automation, workflow and print-on-demand innovation.
“This next phase of their investment demonstrates the shared vision we have – delivering reliable, flexible and sustainable book production solutions for publishers.”
CPI also runs finishing equipment from Tecnau, Horizon and Muller Martini at its 80-staff Eastbourne site.
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