Allied will take delivery of the Rapida 106 in November and company president John Sommers Jr. told PrintWeek that the new press would be used to handle the company’s strong growth in its overall printing business.

"It’s a lot more than just direct mail," he added. "It’s commercial and financial printing in general."

Founded in 1949, Allied Printing Services operates out of a massive 285,000 sq. ft. facility and Sommers said the company had opted to invest in new equipment even during these challenging economic times.

"We think it’s very important to continue our commitment to invest in technology and continue to add capacity," he said. "That combined with what appears to be a recovering economy gives us a very positive outlook."

Though he looked at other presses, Sommers noted that there were several key reasons why Allied Printing chose the 41" Rapida 106, including the ability to print on a wide range of substrates, from 40-lb text to 48-pt. board, as well as features built into its inline automated systems like color control, automatic register and auto plate changing.

Though the Rapida 106 represents a significant investment in offset, Sommers told PrintWeek  that the company’s digital business had been growing as well.

"Variable data printing has been a focus for us and it’s the place where we’ve put a lot of investment dollars in recent years," he explained, adding that the company had five digital presses and two-digital format output devices from a number of different vendors such as HP, Canon and Ricoh.

Allied Printing has a national clientele and was one of a handful of US printers who made trip to Dusseldorf last May to visit Drupa.

"We looked at a number of different presses and thought that not only was the KBA best suited for our needs, but we like the direction the company was heading, its strong management team and its commitment to commercial print offset," Sommers said.