Colour Network has made an 800,000 investment in a new Speedmaster 74 DI from Heidelberg.

Managing director Robert Gray said the five-colour B2 press would enable the company to take on more short-run magazine work when the machine is installed in November.

The firm, based at Queenslie near Glasgow, currently turns over 1.5m a year and has 18 staff. It prints work for a range of clients in the UK, including designers, advertisers, estate agents and local authorities in Scotland and north England.

The company also undertakes short-run paperback and hardback books for publishers.

"At the rate CTP technology is going we will be able to capitalise on work done by web presses," said Gray. "Were trying to attack the market and this machine will allow us to tackle it quickly."

Colour Network was the first company in Scotland to install a Heidelberg Quickmaster DI 46. Gray said that it would upgrade its large-format ink-jet facilities over the coming year to take on more wide-format and short-run point-of-sale work.

Story by Fay Schopen