The firm is the world's first customer for the B3 five-back-five long-perfector.

The demonstration kit will be shipped to ABC's Hereford plant at the end of the show. "I want to sleep with it," exclaimed managing director Mike Greene.

Specialist B3 producer ABC said it required a 10-colour for seals on top of the four process colours so two-sided work could be finished and distributed quickly.

Trade printer ABC handles run lengths mainly in the 250 to 25,000 range. The company hopes the long perfector with AxisControl spectrophotometry will enable it to extend further into the short-run magazine market and increase its turnover from 1.3m to2m.

ABC first saw Heidelberg's eight-colour SM 52 when it was launched at Drupa. It subsequently visited Healeys in Ipswich, which was the first customer for the SM 52-8P, to see if there was a market for the machine.

ABC has bought a 1200sqm unit to allow for future expansion and it is currently recruiting more staff to handle the new press capacity.