Bartham Group partner Steve Loasby ordered a Stahlfolder CH 56 at the event and it is due to be installed at the Luton-based business this week.
The company paid £69,000 for the new machine and is replacing a Stahlfolder KH 56, but retaining an existing buckle machine, a Stahlfolder TD 66.
Director Raj Koyes said: “We liked the speed and set-up times of the new purchase; we want to improve productivity and efficiency. It runs at 14,000 to 16,000 sheets an hour.
“The old machine took 20 minutes to set up for each job; the new one only takes two minutes. You have to move both with the times and the technology.
“We were finding every time we had a difficult job – say something with six different folds – it could take three hours to set up. Now it takes about 15 minutes.”
Bartham Group said it has seen a big improvement in business over the past 18 months, attributed to the general economic upturn and the recruitment of Raj Koyes to run the business.
Koyes's family bought Bartham Group around eight years ago and Raj Koyes took complete control 18 months ago. The 22-staff general commercial printer turns over £1.8m.
The firm produces business cards, leaflets and other promotional material for end-clients such as Luton Town Football Club, hospitals and local and national businesses.
Koyes said the company was looking to replace its existing Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74 with a secondhand Speedmaster XL 75, budgeted for around £600,000, within about six months.
“I'd like to see turnover go to £2.5m in a year or 18 months. I don't believe in a quiet month. If you work hard enough, it's never quiet. Last year, August and December, regarded by many as 'dead' periods, were our best months.”
He added: “We invested in finishing equipment before the press because once the XL 75 is in we'll need improved finishing to keep up with the increasing throughput.”
Loasby said: “We have a bottleneck at the finishing end and had already bought a Morgana card cutter to take pressure off the guillotines. So now we focused on folding.
“The Heidelberg Stahlfolder had a better build and was more robust than rival systems. Residual value was better and the price more competitive.”
The CH 56 was a more automated folder and ideal for the B2 printer, he said. Both the parallel and cross-fold operations were automated.
“The two Stahlfolders we have had since 2007 are still working well: I could count on one hand the number of times we have had to call out a Heidelberg engineer. They are reliable machines.”
