Above: Jim Peterson and Mark Crawford (Vanguard Digital Printing Systems)

Jim Peterson, founder and COO of Vanguard Digital Printing Systems says the company is looking forward to more local growth following the recent installation of its first machine in Australia.

“We’re incredibly excited to have our first couple of installations in Australia,” Petersen told Sprinter while at drupa.

“Matt Ashman and the Durst team are carrying the product and we’re so incredibly excited about all the opportunity that the Vanguard Digital Printing product has for the area.”

Vanguard was recently launched by Durst Oceania managing director, Matt Ashman at the FESPA Global Print Expo in Amsterdam. The roll-to-roll, flatbed and hybrid products launched in Australia following FESPA 2024 in Amsterdam earlier this year. Dan Mantel manages the Vanguard business in Australia and New Zealand.

Coburg-based printer Evan Evans is first customer in Australia to purchase a Vanguard printer from Durst Oceania. At the time of the Evan Evans’ purchase of the machine in April, Ashman said Durst’s decision to acquire a majority stake in Vanguard Digital Printing fills a gap in the market for Durst for fixed-bed machines.

“We acquired Vanguard and brought them into the Durst family in 2019. We applied all of our service and support network to them, and now we are bringing them into Australia.

“We’re really proud to be working with Vanguard and to announce Evan Evans as our first official install. It’s created a huge buzz in the industry because this is the hole Durst needed to fill.”

“We are dedicated to wide-format printing, which has been very successful for us, but there have always been two areas: fixed bed machines and moving belt machines. And our customer base constantly asks us, ‘When are we going to get fixed bed machines?’,” said Ashman.

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