Lancashire-based wallpaper specialist Graham & Brown has installed a second Durst Alpha Wallpaper Edition digital printer a year after its first, in order to further increase flexibility in its commercial offering and to support its sustainability objectives.
‘The potential is enormous,’ said Sam Dobson, operations director for Graham & Brown. ‘Digital is an extremely important technology for the wallpaper industry. It’s really about print-on-demand, reducing print run lengths and giving a more bespoke offering to customers. At the moment, this industrial-scale digital production has filled the gap between high run lengths of conventional printing and the low volumes on our previous digital machines.
‘We see the Durst as a complementary technology that has many environmental and other benefits. As one example, the main resource we need to power the machine is electricity, and all of that is renewable. For the last year all of our digital production – representing 35% of the Graham & Brown brand offer – has been carbon-zero.’
The company’s digital journey has run in parallel with its e-commerce strategy to create unique wallpaper, with greater production flexibility and to reduce its warehouse stock by adopting a print-on-demand model. The installation of the first Durst Alpha Wallpaper Edition production printer in January 2022 was so successful that a second machine was installed a year later.
Martin Winkler, Durst Group wallpaper specialist and business development manager, textiles, said, ‘The move to digital production in the wallpaper industry is accelerating as buying habits change. We are proud to have partnered with Graham & Brown as it expands digital printing volumes to provide carbon neutral production, which only digital can deliver. The installation of a second Durst Alpha Wallpaper Edition is underpins our belief that wallpaper has since ceased to be just a ‘renovation object’ and has now become a lifestyle product with which customers express their individuality and create a feel-good atmosphere.’
The Alpha Wallpaper Edition is claimed by Durst to be the most productive digital printing system on the market, with a production capacity of over 1500 rolls per day or up to 1.2 million linear metres per year. In addition to productivity and ‘outstanding’ colour consistency across the print width or run length, Durst says its system brings a total cost of ownership advantage. The Durst Alpha pigment inks are water-based inks and available in eight colours.
