Gavin Watson launches short-run packaging service with HP Indigo 35K digital press

Gavin Watson Ltd, a Scotland-based print and packaging specialist, has launched a new on-demand digital packaging service with the installation of an HP Indigo 35K digital press at its Blantyre facility near Glasgow.

Completed in July 2026, the installation enables Gavin Watson to make short and ultra-short-run packaging commercially viable for emerging and challenger brands. It also removes the need to commit to the minimum order quantities traditionally required to achieve a competitive unit price. Building on its existing HP Indigo 6900 digital press, the investment gives Gavin Watson an opportunity to challenge established buying and production models in the short-run market.

Tom Brown, CEO of Gavin Watson, says, “Growing brands shouldn’t have to compromise between exceptional packaging and ordering more than they need. By combining HP Indigo technology with our packaging expertise, we offer a more agile approach to short-run packaging, delivering premium quality, faster turnaround times, and the flexibility to produce personalized, on-demand packaging. With the HP Indigo 35K, we can bring this proposition to emerging brands in commercially viable quantities, helping them create packaging that gets noticed and makes a lasting impression.”

Meeting demand

The installation comes as Gavin Watson sees demand for short-run carton packaging accelerating. Brands are launching products faster, managing more SKUs, and responding to increasingly compressed consumer and social-media-driven cycles. This creates demand for shorter lead times and greater creative agility.

The HP Indigo 35K enables Gavin Watson to respond with prototypes, multiple design versions, and personalized applications. Meanwhile, the printer can reduce make-ready times and allow more unique jobs to be produced per shift. The move is also building new expertise across the business, with employees developing skills in color management, variable data printing, workflow automation, and digital press operation. Plus, production and design teams are collaborating on packaging concepts that were more difficult to execute conventionally.

Producing to demand also supports Gavin Watson’s sustainability ambitions by helping customers reduce excess inventory and overproduction, as well as the risk of unused packaging becoming obsolete when products or designs change.

Jack North, UK&I HP Indigo packaging sales, comments, “Packaging needs to move at the speed of the brands it represents. A product can launch, build an audience, and evolve in a matter of weeks, yet traditional packaging economics can still lock businesses into quantities and timelines that don’t reflect that reality. With the HP Indigo 35K, Gavin Watson Ltd is closing that gap – enabling brands to think smaller in quantity, faster in execution, and bigger in creativity. That is where digital print can fundamentally change the economics of packaging.”

Looking ahead, the company expects digital production to play an increasingly important role as shorter product cycles, SKU proliferation, rapid brand growth, and sustainability pressures reshape packaging requirements. The HP Indigo 35K positions the company to capture that shift and make digital packaging a core driver of its next phase of growth.