Sydney, Australia - Starting out as a photographic business called Photo King about 30 years ago, no one could have foreseen the twists and turns that would take its owners into wide format printing.

Romeo Sanuri, general manager at Next Printing says, “Over the years, we saw a decline in the photographic business. As it continued to decline, we made a decision to start up another business as the wide format printing business of Photo King. We called it Next Printing. “Back in those days, a lot of people printed roll-to-roll but we started with a flatbed because we saw the need for more efficient printing and that is what the flatbeds gave us.”

Having no prior experience in wide format printing proved no barrier as Sanuri and managing director, Tom Tjanaria worked hard to make the company an effective printer.

Initially, they cut all their work by hand. Sanuri says, “After a couple of years of manually cutting the product, we knew we needed to automate. Things came to a head in 2006 and we approached some companies about buying a cutting table. We went with Esko.”

Next Printing installed a Kongsberg XL cutting table. He says, “Our relationship with Esko is now a decade long and we intend to stay with Esko. In 2010, Next Printing upgraded to an Esko Kongsberg XP 24 cutting table. He says, “We upgraded to the Kongsberg XP 24 the same year that Esko released it. The Kongsberg XP 24 offers pretty much double the speed of the XL 24.

“This is an industrial build machine. It works well for us and we have no major issues in terms of equipment. Plus we see the team from Esko on a regular basis. One of the major jobs we run on the XP 24 is ReBoard, where we create a structure to replace MDF strength. It is the same as MDF, 60mm.

“One of the features that make the XP 24 so good to run is the software supplied with it. For example, ArtiosCAD allows us to design something to make a 3D structure. In the last three to four years, we have been able to break into this 3D design area where we get a brief from the client which would have been impossible without the software.”

Next Printing is one of the few Australasian companies to have won awards from Fespa. Sanuri says, “We won the Fespa silver awards for the POS category. We created a giant pop-up card using ReBoard, all cut on the Esko machine.”

Based in St Peters in Sydney, Next Printing employs around 30 people full-time and some part-time for when it gets busier. With clients nationwide, it has a predominant focus on the retail area. Sanuri says, “We do work for a lot of fashion and cosmetic brands. On the exhibition side, we do a lot of work for exhibition builders. We have also done a lot of work for television shows and for stage shows.” The company name comes from their desire to stay relevant. Sanuri concludes, “We are always looking for the latest innovation, the next thing, and we keep aware of the trends in printing, so Next makes sense as a good company name.”