"Rural has been a long-standing customer of ours for many years, and we were pleased to secure the deal," said GAE managing director Tony Hards.

Rural Press owner Bhogi Kachhela said one of the main factors in choosing the Performer 566 had been the back-up service provided.

"The fact that we have had a long relationship with GAE was also an important factor, but the price played a part as well," said Kachhela.

The Polly Offset Performer 566 is a convertible-to-perfecting five-colour SRA2 press, capable of producing 10,000 sheets per hour. It has touch-screen control of the sheet feeder and pressures between the printing cylinders as well as the automatic ink roller washer units and blanket washers.

The Polly control screen includes a memory function for fast pre-setting of repeat jobs, which can store up to 5,000 jobs.

The Performer 566 can be mainly used for the production of commercial four-colour work such as brochures and posters.

The Polly Offset range of presses is designed and engineered in the Czech Republic by US-owned Grafitec, and IS sold in the UK & Ireland through distributor GAE.

Rural Press is a medium-sized commercial printer with 14 employees and an annual turnover approaching 1m.

The Polly Performer presses can be found in Hall 9, Stand 100, along with GAE.