Matching its business philosophy, ‘we can produce anything you can dream of’, Sydney-based printing company, Carbon8 has invested in a new Fujifilm Revoria PC1120.

Multi-award-winning Sydney-based printing company, Carbon8, has a reputation in the market for working with high end clients to deliver premium printing products.

Known as a committed advocate of HP Indigo, it came as a surprise that the business recently decided to invest in a Fujifilm Revoria PC1120.

Carbon8 co-owner Peter Musarra first viewed the Revoria at drupa in 2024, but it was not until later in the year that the business case became obvious.

“Leading into Christmas, the volume of work coming into Carbon8 led to multiple shifts of overtime on the Indigo platform,” Musarra told ProPrint.

“A large portion of the work on the Indigo really should not have been run at that cost and we realised it was time we needed to add a different engine to the stable.

“Of course, one solution was to invest in another version of the same engine that we already had in our business, but after examining our needs and the available machines in the market, we decided to look at a completely different engine that provided us with some diversification.

“Not only was the Revoria a cost-effective option, but it also provided additional financial benefits and efficiencies within our business.The Revoria has allowed us to offer a broader range of services, and most importantly, a more cost competitive offering One of the first things the Revoria helped us achieve was the reduction in overtime, as we no longer needed to run our two sheet-fed Indigos late into the night.

“Suddenly, we were able to create more output under the same roof, in the same shift. Some of our staff were the strongest supporters for the Revoria as they could see that this would improve the profitability, viability and sustainability of our entire business.”

Carbon8 co-owner Kenneth Beck-Pedersen provided a specific case study to explain the benefits of the new Revoria machine.

“There is one catalogue job we have every six weeks that would take 14 or 15 hours on the A3 Indigo machine. This is now on the Revoria and takes 12 hours. It is a simple job on coated stock that is suited to the Revoria, and the client is just as happy with the results.

“This same client was pressuring us to do the work at a better price, and the beauty of having the Revoria is we have delivered a seven per cent reduction in the cost of the job for the client even though our overall profitability for the job increased. As a result, we have renewed this contract for a further two years and the client loves the results from the Revoria,” Beck- Pedersen said.

“Our business can change from week to week. Sometimes we are printing business cards, the next week it could be menus for a chicken shop, or suddenly a bunch of black and white novels. The best thing about the Revoria is that it can handle all of this work, as well as multi-page brochures. It works with textured paper and can also print envelopes. The quality and consistency is exactly what we require for this diverse range of regular work that we are no longer outsourcing or pricing too high.

“There is a segment of our work where the Revoria technology is probably better than the Indigo for our business. Running certain jobs on the Indigo is like delivering a pizza in a Maserati. The Revoria is also far less demanding from an operator perspective so we can have the two Indigos and the Revoria running without an additional full-time operator,” Beck- Pedersen said.

Musarra estimates up to 30 per cent of Carbon8’s existing work could eventually be transferred to the Revoria, but the new machine has also provided the business with access to more opportunities.

“At Carbon8, we are not about delivering the cheapest product, but there is plenty of work and market credibility that is being lost by printers at the moment that let people down. There is a substantial volume of work out there that has become available from companies either going out of business or those that don’t have the dedication to deliver on time and making it beautiful – no matter how simple the job may be,” Musarra said.

“Our business model always is and always will be high margin work to the high-end of town, but we realised we were missing out on work at a lower price point that we either outsourced or turned away. We are now able to provide a much broader range of products that are much more cost-effective for our customer base. If clients come to us and say they have budget constraints, we can now say we have options to save them money and we can also provide a wider catchment of clients with a broader set of services.

“The Revoria matched our business philosophy, which is ‘we can produce anything you can dream of’ – and like most printing businesses we don’t like saying no to our clients. With the Revoria we now have access to additional applications including speciality inks that also feeds back into our super premium reputation and our ability to deliver that ‘magic’ to the top end of town.

“While the Revoria is less complicated, it is still able to deliver several creative advantages over the Indigo that we have been able to use such as white, silver, clear, and vibrant pink as well as the ability to print a long sheet. This versatility is the reason why this machine won out against its competitors in the same category. We needed one product that could hit 100 per cent of this regular work, and as an entire package it was the best machine in the market compared to competitors and was at a price that worked for our business, and we may end up with a couple more Revorias in the future,” Musarra said.

“I still believe the HP Indigo is the quintessential premium digital reproduction engine in the market, but uptime remains an issue. The uptime of the Indigo does not compare to the less complicated Revoria engine that continues to get the work done and when there has been a service issue, it has always been resolved by Fujifilm in a few hours, never days.

“The Fujifilm team involved in educating our team on the machine were very thorough and throughout the entire sales process we felt as though it was a genuine collaboration rather than just a hard sales pitch as our needs were considered at all times.

“We knew that Fujifilm wanted to make this machine work for us and this genuine collaboration has been very refreshing and it is a good start for the longevity of our relationship. We have been sold machines in the past where we were the favourite for only a short amount of time, but the Fujifilm service and customer relationship has been second to none and we feel as though we are in this together.”

Ryan Julleza, NSW account manager, Fujifilm Graphic Systems, said, “We’re privileged to showcase the capabilities of our Revoria PC1120 to Kenneth and Peter, gaining insight into their needs and demonstrating the value it can bring to their operations through the high-quality prints it produces using special colours such as white, pink, gold, and silver. We’re glad to have brought smiles to Carbon8.”

Roger Labrum, analogue sales and marketing manager, Fujifilm Graphic Systems, said, “With the installation of the Revoria PC1120 at a top tier, high value and immensely innovative print house like Carbon8, we have created a partnership that will deliver substantial growth, resilience, and sustainability within their business.

“The Revoria PC1120 is the ideal product to complement existing digital technology within Carbon8 and provides additional value propositions and opportunities for business development. The Fujifilm team is looking forward to working closely with Carbon8 to support their expanding business and maximising the creativity of their clients’ projects and experiences.”

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