The deal, which includes an option for a second Sunday 5000, makes the magazine printer the first in the country to adopt the 96-page format.

The four-unit gapless press boasts a 2.86m-wide web, automatic plate-changing and DigiRail digital inking and a PCF-3 pinless gripper.

"We chose the 96-page format to differentiate ourselves and to offer our customers unique advantages," said Stark Druck sales director Tino Heer.

"Observing and actually testing the performance of the Sunday 5000 press ourselves convinced us that this was the right choice. Print quality advantages of the DigiRail digital inker, and a shorter cut-off, made possible by the gapless blankets, were also important factors."

The first Sunday 5000 was installed by Italian magazine printer Grafiche Mazzucchelli in 2007, while another has been ordered by a company in Spain. 

The machine at Stark Druck will be complemented with a Goss Contiweb FD paster, an Ecocool dryer and the Goss Web Center automated control and workflow system.

It joins two Sunday 4000 presses, which are configured in a duplex system with a Goss SG-3 folder that produces 96pp stitched signatures.