New Zealand-owned Opus Print Group opened an "on-demand" digital printing facility in Auckland this week.
The Mt Eden operation will trade as Ligare - the name of a Sydney business Opus acquired in 2007 - and will focus on time-sensitive, short print runs of books primarily for the educational and professional sectors.
Opus chief executive Cliff Brigstocke said the Auckland operation was born out of requests from New Zealand customers for a local digital book printing facility.
Printing work for the New Zealand market being carried out in Sydney would be moved to Auckland, reducing freight costs and time to market, he said.
Brigstocke said digital printing was the future of Opus' New Zealand business model.
Digital technology allowed much shorter print runs than was possible with traditional offset printing, he said.
The average print run at Ligare was expected to be about 300 books.
"But we can customise those [print runs] down to a text for a class size, often being 25 to 30 books."
An IPO of shares in the privately owned Opus Group was an option the company was considering, Brigstocke said.
"We haven't made a final decision as yet, but we're looking at all options available to us."
Opus meets demand for fast digital print service
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