Slaters Menswear is the retail trade’s latest convert to digital print technology courtesy of Epson, whose AcuLaser colour printers have been installed throughout the group’s 14 UK stores.

The need to produce increasingly fast-turnaround in-store signage and labelling has convinced the retailer that, instead of depending upon a single-source supplier, it’s quicker to do it itself.

Linked to the head office’s virtual network – through which sign and shelf edge labelling templates are developed and managed – regional visual merchandising teams now have the flexibility to produce localised, high quality signageing a matter of minutes.

According to William Mould, systems manager for Slater Menswear, the new printer set-up has enormously improved time and cost-efficiency throughout the organisation.

“Staff in our regional branches now have the flexibility to design and print their own signage, according to their specific needs.

“In our Leeds branch, for instance, the manager used to have to wait up to four days between putting in a request and being able to put up a finished sign in the store. Now Leeds has its own high quality laser printer, and the staff there can complete the whole process themselves. It takes a matter of minutes.

“All our stores need to be able to print on media of all sizes, from 7-inch by 1-inch shelf edge labels to A4 posters. Each of the printers is in constant use and we needed to combine outstanding print quality with reliability and cost efficiency. The Epson AcuLaser colour laser printers were exactly what we were looking for.”