The new press will replace the west London-based company's five-colour Speedmaster XL 105, which has notched up 57 million impressions per year since it was installed in 2010, and run alongside another XL 106.
For managing director Sam Neal, it was important to get the newest and best press possible.
“We did our research and we think it's the best press money can buy,” he said of the press due to be unveiled at Drupa in Dusseldorf, Germany on 31 May.
“Our existing XL 105 is an awesome piece of kit. It would've been a hard job to convince us otherwise but we did go out and we did research, particularly on KBA, which we visited in Dresden.
“We also weighed up the standard infrared coating against LE or LED options. For us it was good to stay with infrared.”
The new five-colour-plus-coater XL 106 is equipped with the updated Prinect Press Center XL 2 and features a 1.65m wall screen, new 483mm multi-touchscreen and a more intuitive operating system.
It is due to be delivered on 19 December along with Inpress Control 2 spectral measurement and Autoplate Pro plate-changing.
Neal, who convinced his father and company chairman Geoff Neal to buy the firm’s existing XL 105 new six years ago, instead of opting for a secondhand machine, first saw the latest version before Christmas.
“We signed an NDA and went to see Heidelberg just before Christmas. It was the best thing for us. We wanted to replace our press and we [initially] wanted to do it by the summer. But we thought it was worth the wait," Neal said.
“In my opinion and most of my clients’ opinion, if you're not running a Heidelberg XL you've got to have a reason as to why you're not. It's seen as the best press. It kind of just ends that part of the conversation.”
He said the Speedmaster, which will allow the company to continue its core business, will increase productivity by up to 15% over the outgoing model, which already runs 24/7.
He said the cost of the new press was part of the NDA agreement.
He added there was “significant interest” in the re-sale of his existing Speedmaster.
“It's worth a great deal. It's been excellently maintained,” he said.
Neal added that the planned replacement period for presses had shortened since the days of Speedmaster CD and SM technology because of the amount of work the presses can do. Geoff Neal Group used to keep presses for eight to 10 years because they produced around 20 million impressions a year.
Of the outgoing Speedmaster, Neal said: “It did exactly what Heidelberg said it would do and doubled the productivity of our previous press."
Neal also said the company’s rebrand, in October, had had a positive effect on the business.
“Everyone I know has had a fantastic start to the year and we've had an okay one. There’s a lot of opportunity out there; we've had clients come to us on the back of our new brand, especially our consultancy offering.
“They're saying come show us what you can do that's different. We’re feeding their creative department, with new thoughts and what's possible. That for me is very exciting. Hopefully in six to nine months we'll have new clients. I'm pleased with what the new brand's done – its done what we wanted it to do.”
£14.5m-turnover Geoff Neal Group operates a range of Heidelberg litho and Konica Minolta digital equipment and has 92 staff.
