Inside Rapid • two sites • all in-house
We own the machines.
A lot of online print is a website with someone else’s factory behind it. Ours is behind the counter. This is what’s on the floor, what each machine is for, and why a printer that’s nearly ten years old is still the one we reach for at ten to three.
On the floor
- Large formatHP Latex 365, HP Latex 630 Wand a row of HP DesignJets
- RigidMutoh UV, Mimaki 3.2m flatbedstraight onto the board
- Fabric3.2m dye-subwalls, flags, table cloths
- CuttingVeloBlade Nexus3m by 3m bed
- Small formatXerox Versant 4100with a Plockmatic booklet maker, and more Xerox besides
- FinishingA full binderyPolar guillotines to PUR binding
- Opened
- March 2025
- Site two
- Open
- Same day cutoff
- 3pm
- 4.98 / 5
Why it matters to you
A factory with a website.
No one else in the chain
Print, cut, finish and pack are all done by us, on our own kit. No trade printer in the middle, no waiting on someone else’s van. That’s how a 3pm order reaches you the same day.
We can see your job
If a colour looks off on the press, we stop it. If your deadline moves, we can move your job up the queue. Try that with a call centre.
A spare for everything
More than one Latex, more than one Xerox, more than one way to print a board. If a machine goes down at two o’clock, your job moves to the next one, not to tomorrow.
Machine by machine
What’s on the floor.
Two sites. The counter, the presses and the bindery are in Borough. The really big kit lives at site two.
27 Tabard Street, SE1
HP Latex 365
The old one. Nearly ten years on the clock, the oldest machine we own, and still the quickest. When a job has to be right first time with a courier waiting outside, this is where it goes.
Latex prints come off the machine dry. That’s the only reason same day works.
Makes Roller banners, PVC eyelet banners
HP Latex 630 W
The new ones. White ink, a wider colour range, and better on canvas and vinyl. White is what lets us print on clear and coloured films without the colour going thin.
Makes Canvas, vinyl and anything that needs white ink
HP DesignJet
A row of them, knocking out plan prints and high-res, properly vibrant posters all day.
Makes Posters and plan printing
Mutoh UV
Prints straight onto the board. Foamex, foam board, Correx, anything solid. No printing a vinyl and mounting it afterwards.
It also runs roll media, so when the Latex queue backs up the Mutoh takes the overflow.
Makes Foam boards, Rigid display stands and anything printed straight to board
Xerox Versant 4100
Our favourite, with a massive Plockmatic booklet maker on the end. Around it: more Xerox presses than you can shake a toner cartridge at.
Makes Booklets, Flyers, Business cards, Folded leaflets
The bindery
Polar guillotines, folding, stitching, drilling, creasing, PUR binding, wiro binding and round cornering. Everything that turns a printed sheet into a finished job, in the same building as the press.
Site two
3.2m dye-sub
The super-wide. Stretch walls, flags and table cloths are printed here, with the colour dyed into the cloth, not sitting on top of it.
She’s a beast. Built so solid we’d put her up against a tank and expect her to come off without a scratch.
Makes Stretch walls, Flags, Table cloths
Mimaki 3.2m flatbed
More direct to board, and a lot more board. A 3.2 metre bed for the big sheets and the long runs, so the Mutoh in SE1 stays free for the same-day work.
Makes Foam boards and large-format boards
VeloBlade Nexus
A cutting table three metres by three. A camera reads the print, then it cuts and creases to the line. Super fast, super accurate. Shaped boards, standees and strut cards all finish here.
Makes Strut cards, Display stands and anything cut to shape
The HP Latex 365
New kit on the floor. The old one still gets the nod.
We’ve bought the newer machines, and they’re better at plenty: white ink, colour, canvas. But the 365 is the oldest thing we own and still the fastest, and it has never let us down at ten to three.
Every print shop has a machine like this. Most won’t admit it.
Order to finished
Website to booklet, no hands.
You order a booklet
On the website. Pages, paper, quantity, artwork up, paid.
A person checks the file
Same as every job. Anything that would print badly gets fixed or flagged.
Our own software takes over
It imposes the pages, picks the press and queues the job. We built it ourselves.
The 4100 prints it, the Plockmatic finishes it
Printed, folded and stitched in one pass. It comes out of the far end as a booklet.
Once your file has been checked, nobody touches a button.
As long as there’s paper in the trays, it runs. That’s how a booklet ordered after lunch is in a box by the end of the day, and why the people here spend their time on the jobs that need a person.
We’re living in the future. It smells of toner.
Now open
We ran out of room. So we got more.
Eighteen months after we opened, Tabard Street was full.
Site two is now open. It’s around ten times the floor space, with the ceiling height to build upwards when we fill that too. It’s where the really big kit lives: the 3.2m dye-sub, the Mimaki flatbed and the VeloBlade.
Fabric and big boards are printed there, then brought across to Tabard Street to be finished, packed and sent. That trip is what the 11am fabric cutoff is for.
Tabard Street isn’t going anywhere. Same counter, same cutoffs, same people. Just a lot more machine behind them.
Opened
One unit in Borough, two minutes from the tube.
Site two
Open, and home to the biggest kit we own.
Floor space
Around ten times Tabard Street, with room to go up.
In-house
Every product on the site, printed by us.
Not everything here has a plug
The bits that aren’t machines.
Boom boxes
Old ones, still keeping the tempo on the floor.
Boxes
Stacked so high Amazon would be proud. Every order leaves in plain packaging.
The bins
Paper and card offcuts are recycled by the bucket load. Inks and waste are dealt with properly, not tipped in the general bin.
Straight answers
Questions people ask.
Do you print everything in-house?
Yes. Every product on this site is printed, cut and finished by us, on our own machines, across our two sites. Nothing is sent out to a trade printer and relabelled.
Why is the cutoff 11am for fabric and 3pm for everything else?
Geography. Stretch walls, flags and table cloths are printed on the 3.2m dye-sub at site two, then brought across to Tabard Street to be finished, packed and sent. Ordering by 11am gives us time to print it and make that trip the same day. Everything else is printed and finished under one roof in SE1, so it runs to 3pm.
Why does it matter who owns the machines?
Speed and control. A broker sends your file to a factory, waits, then ships it on. We print it, finish it and hand it to the courier ourselves, which is how a 3pm order reaches you the same day. And if something looks wrong on the press, we can stop it.
What happens if a machine breaks down?
The job moves. There’s more than one HP Latex, more than one Xerox and more than one way to print straight to board, and the Mutoh UV can switch to roll media when the banner queue backs up. A breakdown at two o’clock costs us a swear word. Your job just moves to the next machine.
Can I collect from you?
Yes. Collection is free from 27 Tabard Street, SE1, two minutes from Borough tube, on weekdays. Most products ordered by 3pm are ready the same day. The detail is on the cutoff times page.
Do you take trade work?
Yes. Trade customers get the same kit, the same cutoffs and plain packaging. It’s all on the trade page.
Put the kit to work
Where to next.
Order by 3pm
Got a deadline? Put the kit to work.
Pick a product for a live price, or tell us what you need and when. A person checks every file before it prints.