And yet, sat in his Burnley pressroom is a secondhand B1 Heidelberg CD 102 six-colour press. It’s been there since December last year. And he’s very pleased with it. 

“I’ve got no regrets on the press or its purchase price,” he admits. 

Gaughan is not alone in this sudden conversion to seeing secondhand slightly differently. While in the past used machines were seen as tainted and risky investments, it seems that, according to the secondhand kit dealers at least, printers are realising that’s no longer the case. 

“Fifteen years ago a Heidelberg or Komori press with 80 million impressions was looked on as a rather doubtful investment,” explains John Roadnight, director at PressXchange. “Today people happily buy machines with 250 million on the clock knowing that they will still get another five years of trouble-free running from them.” 

And it’s not just presses people have had a change of heart about, according to Giles Smith, director of Printing & Graphic Machinery: “Offset presses, flexo presses, bookbinding machines and finishing machines – the only area that is perhaps not the best to source secondhand is for some of the pre-press kit like CTP, as these machines can become redundant due to software compatibility,” he says. 

Of course, this is not to say all printers have been converted to seeing secondhand as a sound investment, far from it, nor that the market is one in which quality remains universally high. Problems of perception and issues around finding the best supplier, best deal and best package still persist, too, but the good news is that there is now a lot of advice out there to help navigate the market. 

Gaughan says the first thing to do is find a supplier you can trust. 

“If you go to the right people you can trust them to source the right equipment for you,” he explains. “We used a network of trusted suppliers and a firm we have bought from before; we value their input into the type of press that suits us.”

Asking around about the various companies supplying secondhand kit is a good start, as word of mouth and reputation are usually very reliable indicators. 

“You never really know if you have got a good deal, but we had got recommendations,” says Keith Simpson, managing director at PageFast. His company invested in a range of secondhand kit after Storm Desmond flooded its Lancaster premises. A B2 Komori Lithrone S29 press, guillotine, pile turner and folder were all sourced from the used market.

Checks and balances

Recommendations and reputation are not enough alone to go on, though, both Gaughan and Simpson warn. You need to demand the dealer do due diligence on any press options and to do some yourself, too.  

“The firms that sourced the press options had done history checks on them, and the  presses had undergone inspections on cylinders and other key elements,” says Gaughan. “In most of the cases, the dealer supplied or did print tests on the machines we were interested in, too. Both the supplier and myself invested some time into sourcing the right press, in our case it took eight months to get what we wanted.”

Roadnight recommends going even further. “Take the time to thoroughly print test the press, inspect cylinders, but there are also good engineers – mainly former Heidelberg, KBA, Komori or Manroland technicians – who will, for a few hundred pounds, do a detailed inspection,” he says. 

Smith agrees. “You should be checking the cylinders for any previous damage inside the image area, checking the impression and transfer gripper pads, testing all the pre-set functions and serviceability of the machine. There are test plates that you can use to assess the machine’s colour register and dot.”

It’s when all this has been done that you can have a reasonable discussion about price. Much like in the automotive industry, secondhand usually means you can purchase things much cheaper.   

“It is all about return on investment: a six-year-old used press from a good manufacturer will be 90%-95% as productive as a new press, but with half of the initial investment, so for many companies, even those who can afford new, a good pre-owned machine is a no-brainer,” says Roadnight. 

Smith says there are longer-term financial gains too. “It’s easy to point out that the price of secondhand machines is much cheaper than new equipment but there is also the gain of lower overheads on the finance and ability to change the machines over a shorter time period if the print company’s workload needs to be changed.”

Of course, if you haven’t done your checks done properly, those long-term costs could equally be higher if maintenance becomes too regular and parts need to be replaced too often. 

You can arrange a warranty to mitigate that issue, as Gaughan did. 

Simpson also had a warranty, but he warns that the standard terms do not really fit the bill for most printers. 

“Warranty on new is much better than the usual three months warranty from the secondhand market, which does not really hold up to what is necessary,” he says. 

He warns that ongoing support in general can be an issue with used kit. 

“We have bought secondhand before and in my experience customer care is not much better than ‘deliver it and leg it’ and that view has not really changed with these recent transactions. In my experience secondhand dealers don’t have the same dedication to support you as the suppliers of new kit,” he says.

Gaughan would not fully agree with that assessment. He found the installation a much better experience than for new kit. He admits, though, that he made it his business to ensure things went well. 

“The installation was relatively painless as we had prepared well with the installers. It was less traumatic than a new press installation as we knew everything had been there to run the press previously and was there now to run the press and get it back into production,” he explains. “With new presses it’s sometimes the first time all the components are finally put together. 

“Don’t try to get things done on the cheap, have it fitted correctly. The engineers working on your install must have been at the other end on its decommission, make them feel valued and appreciated for the work they are doing and then they have the extra encouragement to take pride and make the install a good one.”

Easy install

Smith admits after-sales can differ between suppliers, but he says those firms that are reputable should make the process as good as with new kit – if not better.

“The installation process shouldn’t have many differences to new as the machines are installed within a certain tolerance. If anything, many secondhand machines suppliers work a lot quicker than the new machine manufacturers,” he argues. 

On the warranty point in particular, Roadnight confirms Simpson’s hunch on terms. “Most dealers will offer a limited warranty – three months on parts and labour, for example, but this may be less comprehensive than the guarantees we used to offer on fully rebuilt machines,” he says. 

It’s that limited after-sales service that puts some printers off. Certainly Simpson would change the terms if he was to go used again. 

“I’ve got no regrets but I should have kept a retainer against future unknown mechanical or electrical problems which in the end we paid for ourselves,” he says. 

Some printers would not even get to the negotiating table on a used machine, though. Despite the advances and checks above, Paul Manning, managing director at Rapidity, says secondhand is not for him, though he can see certain benefits. 

“Secondhand kit for us generally turns out to be a false economy as servicing, spare parts, service staff, training and other ongoing costs tend to be higher. Although in our bindery we have kit from the 1800s so that’s not always the case!” he says. “On the flip side if you can get a nearly new piece of kit secondhand (and that is rare) then that can be a great way of saving money. Normally that comes about through post-liquidation auctions of printers that have gone bust or a machine vendor who is looking to re-site a piece of kit for the same reason.

“That said, the other reason we don’t generally like buying old kit is it can send the wrong message to staff and customers that we’re not adopting future technologies and progressing, which rightly or wrongly has some fairly negative subconscious connotations.”

It is interesting to note that Gaughan went secondhand for budget reasons and Simpson because of the faster installation time available on a used machine to replace the press damaged in the flooding after the storm. Is that indicative that secondhand remains a last resort? Smith says not, and that he does not encounter a mental barrier from printers against buying secondhand. 

“I wouldn’t say there is much of a fear factor to overcome as printers can see and test the secondhand machines before the deal is done,” he says. 

It’s the transparency of the process that may just swing it for many printers. As Gaughan says, his own reservations were overcome through careful selection of the dealer and a thorough due diligence check before purchase. If you do that part right, then there are clearly significant savings that can be made on printing kit. Just as with the used car market, there are brilliant buys and bargains to be had – and the inevitable old bangers to be avoided.