Supplied by Exel Printing Machinery, the 2000 Series five-colour 2/3 perfector was installed at the Tunbridge Wells-based business over the Christmas period and replaced an older Speedmaster 74 from 1999 that was part-exchanged with Exel.
Green-On finished printing on its old machine on 23 December, and Exel removed it from the firm’s 511sqm premises around a week later. The new press came in on 4 January and it was up and running on 13 January.
One of Exel’s engineers was required to self-isolate during the removal of the existing Speedmaster 74, so Exel managing director Bill Jones and sales director Ian Bendy stepped in to assist in the dismantling and loading of the press.
While both have a technical background, Bendy quipped it had been “quite a few years since either of them had been on the spanners”.
Green-On director and co-owner David Harvey said: “I was surprised to see Bill and Ian on site but was pleased they kept the installation of our new Speedmaster 74-5PH on schedule. Thankfully the press is now fully installed and commissioned as we have a very busy start to the new year.”
He told Printweek: “We hadn’t dealt with Exel previously, however I did know through the trade about Ian and about his past being ex-Heidelberg. That and their past installs that I’ve spoken to people about helped a lot with our decision to go through with getting a secondhand press.
“They’re very trustworthy, Ian knows his stuff and the engineers are good, so it was quite an easy decision to go with them.”
Harvey added the press, which a government backed CBILS loan helped to fund, had a low impression count and had been well looked after.
“We’re really impressed, it looks good and prints really well. We do three magazines each month, usually on a 150gsm cover and 100gsm text, and while printing on the old press was great, when we took over the business in 2018, myself and Gary [Unwin, co-owner of Green-On] had planned to upgrade and get a new press within a couple of years.
“We kept the other one really well maintained, however it had started doing quite a few miles so this was a natural progression.
“We used to get 10,000sph to 11,000sph on our old press, which was good on a 100gsm [sheet] but one of the minders had it printing really nicely at 13,000sph on 100gsm – we couldn’t believe it!”
Green-On also operates two Heidelberg Versafire EV digital production printers, which were installed around two years ago, and a wide range of finishing kit from manufacturers including Duplo, Morgana and Heidelberg.
The business, which is named after its commitment to being environmentally friendly, has seven staff and turns over between £700,000 and £800,000. It produces items ranging from general commercial print through to specialist medical magazines for a wide spread of customers.
Once the effects of the pandemic start to subside, Harvey said the business will potentially look to take on an apprentice and invest in new finishing kit.
