Founded in 1989 by Adrian Bingley, a trained phototypesetter, Wordcrafts has always been in Leicester and started business with just one 36 inch solvent, inkjet printer. The business grew rapidly and soon moved into a new, purpose built, industrial unit. Today, the company occupies 5 industrial units and employs 19 members of staff.

The company concentrates on providing a high quality graphic display service to both agencies and direct with end uses. The services include a range a graphical solutions for vehicle and exterior signage, exhibitions, in-store promotion including banners, POS items and free-standing displays.  

Adrian Bingley, Managing Director of Wordcrafts, said: “We are able to offer a complete in-house service. Not only can we print and produce all the display items but also we have two installation teams.

Always ready to invest in the latest technology, Wordcrafts has a impressive list of digital imaging equipment including 3 roll to roll solvent printers, up to 3.3m wide; a dye based inkjet for interior graphics and two computerised cutting tables along with several mounting, laminating and encapsulating machines. The most recent addition to its equipment is the Rho Pictor UV flatbed.

“We already had a two metre UV flatbed from another manufacturer but that was up to capacity,” explained Adrian Bingley. “We naturally looked very carefully at the market before investing in another flatbed and the Durst fitted the bill perfectly. Firstly, we wanted to be able to offer our customers the ability to print white and Durst has really perfected the process and secondly, we did not need another two metre machine, or larger – the Pictor at 1.6m wide satisfies most of our work. Obviously quality is a major issue and the Pictor’s print quality is excellent and finally, the Pictor offered good value for money, there really isn’t a comparable machine in the market.”

“The white ink printing capability has generated a lot of interest with our customers and we are hopeful that will bring in other work. We produced a mailing, which we sent out to all our customers, which contained samples of work printed on the Pictor and the response has been very good.”

“Apart from commercial print, the Pictor is the idea for printing prototypes for instore displays, for example and with our cutting machines we can offer a very fast turnaround.”

What of the future?
“We will continue along the same lines as today,” commented Adrian Bingley, “but printing directly onto media, without the need for mounting and laminating, offers a very real cost advantage and so I can see more and more work being produced on the UV flatbeds. Similarly, environmental issues are becoming much more important. UV inks offer a major advantage over solvent inks in this capacity both in the work place and for interior display.”

“It’s early days yet but we are sure there is going to be a great demand for recyclable media. We are currently experimenting with printing on recycled Foamex and the results have been very good.”

For more information on Wordcrafts, telephone 0116 255 8422 or visit www.wordcrafts.co.uk. For information on the Durst range of UV inkjets, contact Durst on 01372 388540.