VeloBlade & Matrix Cutting-Edge Combination For Aura Print
The VeloBlade Provides the Flexibility to Produce Die-Cut Products In-House
Aura Print are a proud and humble Yorkshire-based commercial printer based in Huddersfield with an ever-growing global customer base, having now taken the US market by storm. Since their beginnings in 2007, Aura Print have proven their capability time and time again to go above and beyond what their customers expect. From director Liam Smith printing as a one-man operation to a dedicated team of almost twenty experienced print professionals, all with their specialities such as foil printing, wide format and precision trimming, you could say that Aura Print have seen some incredible growth!
The company’s business ethos is centred around value add, striving to offer both more and better than their competitors, from their extensive range of paper types to more creative printing and finishing options. All of which Vivid have helped Aura Print achieve with their innovations and services. In short, where lots of online printers sell the same thing, Aura Print are there to offer better, more impressive printing solutions. Aura Print love their craft, and know it shows in everything they make for their customers. From their superstar customer service team to their design wizards and print/finishing veterans, the only way is up!
We caught up with Aura Print and asked them to share their experience of partnering with Vivid and what their investments has brought to their business. We spoke with Liam Smith, Director at Aura Print and he had this to say: “We’ve always found Vivid’s print finishing systems to be the next step up from consumer solutions. We’ve had laminators, gluers and one of the original Matrix laminating systems from Vivid, back from when we first brought laminating in-house. All these systems have enabled us to offer great quality finishing in-house to our customers. This not only brought down costs for us and our customers, but also increased our margins and turnaround times which all contributes to a thriving business.
“However, it wasn’t until later that we realised the full potential of the the Matrix MX-370P system and that we could also use hot foil – this is obviously going back a few years now. As soon as we started adding metallic foil to our services and on our website, it completely took off. So much so that we decided to create a dedicated website, The Foil Printing Co, for all our foil products. The site not only allowed us to focus on the benefits and luxuriousness of metallic foil, but also allowed us to expand our UK customer base and break into the US market. We have now reached the stage where North American sales are beginning to overtake the UK for us. As for what films and foils we offer, we try to offer as many as we possibly can. The more choice, the better.
“Personally, I think Holographic is probably one of the most popular foils we offer, just because it has such an eye-catching appeal. And if I had to pick my favourite, it would be metallic red – there’s just something sporty about it which I really love,” Mr Smith added.
"Overall, all our Vivid systems have enabled us to add value to our entire print offerings which, in turn, has allowed us to capture more customers due to the varied finishes we offer. Service wise, Vivid has bent over backwards to make sure we’re always running smoothly. Vivid generously partnered with us to upgrade to the VeloBlade Volta 64 digital die-cutting system, which has honestly been a workhorse and we can confidently expect excellent results with every job. So far, the support we’ve received from Vivid has been top notch (or ‘reyyt good’ as we say in Yorkshire). From the initial training to after sales support when our team had questions about setting up work, Vivid has been there to enable us to build our business. "
Why did Aura Print Choose a VeloBlade Volta system?
Mr Smith explained: “The VeloBlade Volta 64 digital die-cutting system was the perfect stepping-stone for Aura Print to be able to bring finishing in-house. With the VeloBlade Volta 64, we wanted the flexibility to be able to produce die cut products in-house. We used to outsource close to 100 die-cut jobs a month, and while the quality was always great, the turnaround time and added cost to customers hindered it. We can now die-cut over 90% of jobs with faster turnaround times and lower cost for our customers making die-cut business cards more reachable for more customers.
“Additionally, we have also switched to kiss cutting all stickers on the Veloblade Volta and the system has opened the doors for us to produce bespoke packaging. Which has really come in handy given how much customers are taking us up on custom playing cards. We’re now able to produce accompanying playing card boxes all designed to the customers specification. This is something that would’ve been difficult with traditional die cutting but the ability for unlimited prototyping on the Veloblade Volta, without having to create form after form, all but solved those old problems.”
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