From small acorns grow great oaks

Written by Colin Gillman | 08 November 2011

Print and cut is not a term generally used by commercial printers outside of the sign and screen sector. In fact, ask any commercial litho/digital printer if he knows what a Gerber Edge is and he will probably think you are talking about a new kind of multiple blade shaving razor.

However, if you showed a commercial printer the neat little desk top VersaStudio BN-20 from Roland, he will immediately ‘get it’, especially when he sees it producing multiple high resolution inkjet images onto adhesive backed vinyl using metallic silver ink and contour cutting around those images to make bespoke short run labels, stickers, signs, packaging concepts, and even t-shirts.

This tidy little package from Roland is packing some serious punch, especially for the £5,499 asking price which, if you can find anybody to sell you one (they are that popular), makes it perfect for anybody looking to start up a graphics business from scratch or extend their existing range of print services. Think high street print shops and digital print studios. I think this is a highly versatile little print and cut solution that, once they see it for themselves, should have many commercial printers reaching for their cheque books.

But its appeal is not just limited to high street print retailers. I sent the following YouTube video below to a friend of mine who runs a commercial printing company. He specialises in bespoke label solutions for small food and grocery producers, so I sent him a note suggesting he take a look, particularly as he could sell a whole new range of products to his existing customers such as packaging design concepts and point of sale displays and so forth.

I took a call from him while I was at the BAPC Conference the other week and he was so excited by the prospect that he wanted to buy one without delay, and by-the-way could I help him to find a sign and graphics company to go with it! Eh? What was fascinating was ten minutes earlier I was talking to a commercial litho printer who had done just that. He had decided to get into wide format with Roland, but instead of investing in just the one wide format printer, this guy had gone the whole hog and bought a sign company to bolt onto his litho printing business. At last! It’s starting to happen.

I have been saying it for a couple of years, but now it is trending. Market convergence is fast becoming a reality, and it’s thanks to innovative little products such as this that are helping to open people’s eyes to the possibilities that print and cut solutions can offer.

What really impresses me is the way that this printer is the perfect device for any budding ‘bedroom’ printers out there. I’ll grant you that it’s a step beyond a John Bull printing kit, but if I was looking to get a new graphics business off the ground then I’d certainly be auditioning this little printer.

Speaking of ‘bedroom’ printers, I know an ex policeman who, when he retired, bought a Roland VersaCamm and stuck it in his spare bedroom and used it to flog advertising posters and other such POS material to his local shops. He got so busy with it that he now owns a full blown display graphics printing company and has a fleet of wide format machines including an Agfa Annapurna flat bed, so from small acorns grow great oaks.

Therefore for these reasons, along with its ability to fire the imagination and encourage printers to re think their approach to market, that I am naming the Roland VersaStudio BN-20 as my product of the year.

Just try and find somebody to sell you one. They’re as rare as hens’ teeth.

Colin Gillman
colin@graphicdisplayworld.com