The five-colour-plus-coater press, which will be delivered to the Basildon, Essex-based business in March, will replace a three-year-old ‘Push to Stop’ XL 106 that has produced 210 million impressions since its installation in early 2017.

Unveiled by Heidelberg last week, the latest generation Speedmaster presses have been described as “the most intelligent and most automated” to date.

The manufacturer said Elle Media continues to be its most productive operation in the UK on a straight configuration press, regularly producing more than 7 million impressions on one press per month with an average run length of circa 4,000 and an average makeready time of just over 3.2 minutes.

With a full suite of Prinect products, Elle Media has transitioned into a fully working Smart Print Shop and Push to Stop producer. The business said the numbers from Prinect Smart BI, both in terms of output and quality, showed that this investment would deliver the ROI it required.

“We had been evaluating this investment for over 12 months as we knew with the output levels we were producing and the fixed operating costs in place that our investment cycle would need to be decreased to ensure we sustained our operating cost per sheet,” said Elle Media Group managing director James Cuthbert.

“This was the primary driver for the investment, combined with the increase in capacity for the same overhead due to Intellistart 3 ensuring one minute improvement on current performance, which will give us another 320 hours of available press time to ensure we maximise the opportunities being presented to us.”

Founded in 1982 as Falder Printing, Elle Media Group both serves commercial print customers and has a growing greetings card publishing division.

Last year the group acquired the right to use the Marstan Press name, alongside various other elements of its intellectual property, after the Bexleyheath operation went into administration. It had acquired MPC Print Solutions in similar circumstances in 2017.