The £7m-turnover firm’s deal for the B2 Shinohara 75VH was driven by its desire to broaden its work mix beyond its core business forms and stationery markets.
According to Calderprint managing director Peter Birbeck the firm looked at various presses available on the market, but the Shinohara’s combination of high specs and competitive price clinched the deal.
“It basically boiled down to what we could get for our money and the 75VH represented the best option,” he said.
He added that the price-wise the Shinohara was inline with similarly equipped used machines from other manufacturers.
Calderprint signed for the five-colour-plus-coater at Ipex and the press was installed at its main production facility in Nelson, Lancashire last month.
The 75VH is the firm’s first Shinohara, although two years ago it installed a four-colour B3 Sanxin press from Printers Superstore, which also supplied the latest press. “It was a nice press and we had a good experience with Printers Superstore and that gave us the confidence to invest in the Shinohara”, said Birbeck.
The new press replaces a four-colour Heidelberg MOZ and will run alongside a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74. It has boosted the firm’s production capacity by around 50%.
“This is a landmark sale, representing the first signs of a shift away from the traditional litho press manufacturers in the popular B2 format,” said Graham Moorby, joint managing director of Hans Gronhi and Shinohara UK agent Printers Superstore.
Following the installation, Calderprint is also looking to attain to ISO 12647/2 colour management standard.
“It’s essential nowadays if you want to be considered seriously as a trade supplier to print management companies,” said Birbeck.
The Shinohara rounds off a £1m spend this year that also included two replacement Form-All Edelmann reel-fed presses, three new Horizon collators, two refurbished MBO folders and a Muller Martini 321 stitcher and Schneider 115 guillotine.
“This is all on the back of what has been our strongest trading year in our 36-year history,” said Birbeck.
The firm operates from its head office in Burnley, with its main production facility in Nelson and a recently opened in-house and trade finishing facility also in Burnley. It operates 18 digital and litho presses across its sites.
At Ipex Shinohara announced that it was to re-establish a Japanese manufacturing and R&D base, following it’s acquisition by Chinese press manufacturer Hans Gronhi in 2012. Following the sale, production of Shinohara presses was relocated to Hans Gronhi’s facility in China.
