William Say & Co. has worked with Tinmasters and its Fujifilm Acuity B1 press to produce a limited run of unique tins, digitally decorated using inkjet printing.
Commissioned and formed as Christmas gifts for customers, the tins were printed by Tinmasters on the Fujifilm Acuity B1 installed at its plant in Swansea, Wales. The run of 100 tins were printed in full colour, each with a unique series number. Individual tins were then given away as Christmas gifts to valued customers of William Say & Co.
Last year, Fujifilm entered into a technology partnership with Tinmasters, one of Europe’s biggest metal packaging printers. As part of this relationship, Tinmasters bought and installed the Acuity B1 in Swansea. William Say & Co. – London’s last remaining independent canmaker – is also not new to the technology, having previously used an Acuity B1 press installed at Fujifilm’s facility in Broadstairs, Kent to produce a bespoke short run of ultra-high quality printed metal tins for high-end retailer Fortnum & Mason and its range of luxury hot chocolate.
Stuart Wilkinson, marketing and sales director at William Say & Co, explained, ‘We’ve been watching developments in digital print technology in our industry for a while. We actually had the privilege of working directly with Fujifilm to produce a short run of hot chocolate tins for a special Fortnum & Mason in-store display early last year. Since then, things have moved on even further.’
He continued, ‘We’ve worked with Tinmasters for many years, and now it has this partnership with Fujifilm, and the ability to print extremely high quality short-run work, it was perfectly placed to help us. We’re really excited about the growth potential inkjet offers our business and our industry and we wanted a way to clearly demonstrate this to our own customers.
Kevin Jenner, business manager, wide format inkjet systems at Fujifilm, said, ‘Inkjet is going to transform the print for metal packaging industry in the same way it has every other print sector from labels, to commercial print to sign and display. It’s happening later and more slowly than it has in other sectors – but it is happening. We’re proud to be driving that change and all the possibilities it brings, and we’re delighted to be working with companies like William Say and Tinmasters to make it a reality.’
Mr Wilkinson concluded, ‘It was a simple exercise that would have been extremely complex and costly using traditional offset print. There used to be a lot of canmakers in London. Now we’re the only ones left. And in large part, it’s because of our willingness to seize opportunities like this that we’re still here, and thriving, and will be for many years to come.’
