A SOUTHAMPTON printing firm was joined by Saints legend Francis Benali when it launched its new £1 million press.

Indigo Press were the first company to install a perfecting H-UV Press in 2015 now they are the first to have two.

The presses, manufactured by Japanese firm Komori, use a UV lamp to dry the paper as it goes through the press.

This works well with uncoated paper – which director Tony Swift said is gaining in popularity – as it dries the ink almost instantly preventing it from soaking into the paper and blotting.

“The press will increase our capacity, because aside from the fact that it’s H-UV, it’s faster, it’s better and it’s newer,” said Tony.

“We also found when we put in the first H-UV press that there were fewer and fewer jobs that we wanted to put on the 10-colour. Everything was going onto the H-UV press because it just did a better job, we didn’t have to worry about drying, jobs can be printed, finished and out in the same day, and the quality is better – particularly on uncoated stocks.”

Indigo employs 46 staff and is going from strength to strength – partly as a result of the GDP data regulations which have seen a resurgence in print marketing in the form of mail shots and inserts in magazines, said Tony.

He and fellow directors Richard Docherty and John Ellis took over the company, founded in 1989, through a management buyout in 2004. Since then turnover has gone from £1.5m to £4.5m.

Offering litho print and services including folding, laminating, cutting and creasing, and spot UV, Indigo serves clients ranging from independent entrepreneurs to multinationals and trade customers.

Francis Benali’s links with the firm go back beyond 1989 as he used to live next door to the factory and can recall kicking his ball against the wall of what was then an auto electrics plant.

Indigo has since supported many of Francis’s charitable ventures.