Trade Signs UK speeds up production and bolsters colour quality with latest investment

Chippenham based trade sign solutions provider Trade Signs UK has paid tribute to its recent double investment in an HP Latex R530 printer and a Latex 830W printer, revealing that the two machines have significantly reduced production times and improved colour quality.

A diversified company that also runs the EnviroSigns and Pvcfreebanner.co.uk brands, Trade Signs UK delivers both traditional sign board printing and a wide range of environmentally friendly banners, boards, signs, displays and graphics to trade customers.

The company has worked exclusively with Latex printers for a number of years, with its arsenal already including a Latex R1000, while it also previously ran a Latex 800W.

Keen to further strengthen its offering, Trade Signs UK turned to HP approved reseller partner Perfect Colours for its latest investment in the autumn of 2025, taking on new R530 and 830W printers.

The R530 is a compact, all in one rigid and flexible printer that can run at a top speed of 24 square metres per hour in indoor mode. With the ability to print on boards up to 1.6 metres wide, the machine prints on media as thick as 5 cm, opening up all manner of opportunities to users across a host of markets.

In tandem, the company also took delivery of a new 830W, which has a top printing speed of 31 square metres per hour in outdoor mode and can also print in both colour and white. Offering a maximum media width of 1.63 metres, the machine allows users to create ICC profiles with an embedded spectrophotometer.

As to why the company returned to HP again, Trade Signs UK managing director Ben Gregory, said: ‘Our business model is value and service, and the HP printer range enables us to give our customers an exceptional service.

‘Turnaround time on HP print products is so much faster than any other production method.

Colour quality and accuracy have also been among the stand out benefits of both of the new printers. Ben said consistency of colour and print through all its machinery is important for customers.

‘HP’s Pixel Control technology is great because it gives us consistency across both machines,’ he said. ‘The R530 and the 830W can produce very similar results and give us a much finer image quality, while we can also create profiles for colours on the fly on new materials.

‘As for the colour spectrophotometer, this is great because it enables us to create colour profiles for new media and match colours for customers. Having this ability to match colours as accurately as possible to the files we are sent is something of a game changer for us.’

Ben also highlighted improved turnaround times following the dual investment, with the hybrid Latex R530’s ability to print both rigid substrates and roll to roll work complemented by the existing Latex R1000 and the additional production capacity provided by the Latex 830W.

He explained that being able to move seamlessly between roll to roll and rigid media on the R530 is a huge benefit, particularly with fast turnaround demands. Trade Signs UK can now easily switch across the two new machines to keep jobs running and as a result has been able to double its capacity and make much better use of its production time.

Add in only limited maintenance due to automation across the two machines and this, Ben said, has significantly strengthened the company’s firepower.

The company has also benefitted from HP PrintOS, a cloud based operating system and workflow platform designed to help customers manage, automate and optimise production on their machines. This, Ben explained, has allowed Trade Signs UK to keep production running overnight, further improving its turnaround time.

‘PrintOS enables us to remotely monitor jobs, meaning we can load things overnight and keep an eye on crucial production information such as ink levels and technical issues, while it also offers us a solid indication of where we are with our use,’ Ben said.

Ben also made reference to the environmental benefits of working with this technology. All HP Latex printers run water based latex inks, which emit only negligible volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and are odourless. This in turn makes them a good solution for work in sensitive indoor environments such as hospitals and schools.

Trade Signs UK put the machines to work across a host of creative applications. However, it was the first project processed on the 830W that shone out for Ben.

The company was tasked with creating a series of indoor graphics for a new office development, with the client requiring everything from floor graphics to wall coverings. Despite having to contend with a range of surfaces throughout the project, Ben said the 830W performed ‘flawlessly’, with Trade Signs UK not only delivering all graphics on time, but to an extremely high standard.