Managing director Stuart Mills paid around £21,000 for the new cutter, which was installed in February. It joined an existing Polar 76 guillotine that was cutting jobs from both its litho and digital operations.

“The new machine is good value for money, sturdy and well built,” he said. “It's similar to our old Polar, but we liked the new touchscreen controls, strong build and value for money of the CCM.”

Birmingham-based Colprint is a five-staff B3 litho printer running a Heidelberg five-colour GTO and a two-colour Hans Gronhi.

It has a digital print sister operation, four-staff Set & Match, which runs two Xerox machines, a 700 and a J75. Each makes around £350,000 turnover and both share the finishing department.

“We were having headaches in finishing; bottlenecks were causing us a problem. Both companies wanted to cut and finish jobs, so an extra guillotine made sense.”

Mills saw the machine at last year's Print Show at the nearby NEC and bought the kit from Terry Cooper Services (TCS).

With an increase in smaller-run, faster-turnaround work, and the need to cut paper for the litho presses, the existing Polar guillotine was struggling to handle the extra throughput on its own.

Mills explains: “We did look at other options but liked the solid build of the CCM Premier.”

The new CCM Premier 780 has improved ergonomics, the 10in touchscreen and air side tables as standard to enable smooth paper handling.

Its deep clamp opening accepts more paper while the automatic knife, with clamp optimisation, reduces overall cutting time.

Mills added: “It has only been in a short time but it is faster. It has made life easier already.”

Following the installation of the CCM Premier 780, the firm moved its Polar into the litho area of the factory.

“This means we don’t have to cut paper in the finishing area, move it to the pressroom, and then back. The CCM Premier can handle the rest of the workload. The process is more streamlined.”