Greyhound invests in Speedmaster to boost capacity

Greyhound Print has bought a Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 52-2 to enable it to cope with increased demand of full-colour work and longer runs.

The rebuilt press, which the firm bought from Gab Supplies in Milton Keynes for £32,000, will be installed at the Bristol-based general printer's premises next week.

“We’ve been outsourcing quite a bit of work and think that we can make a bit more profit by starting to do the spot-colour and the full-colour work that we’re currently outsourcing. We can probably bring about £40,000 worth of work per year in-house with the SM 52-2,” said managing director Bryan Rees.

“We also do bulk copying and turn over probably two or three million black and white copies a year on our Xerox D125 mono copier and just over a million colour copies on our new Xerox 800, which we bought last year for £130,000.”

The company, which also runs a large-format Canon iPF8300 and an EBA 721 guillotine, looked at a range of other alternatives but decided to go with the SM52-2 as it already runs a Heidelberg GTO, which the SM 52-2 will replace.

“We’ve found the Heidelbergs to be rock solid. The GTO has done well for us but the new one has Autoplate and autowash and it’s exactly what we needed,” said Rees.

The firm, which was established in 1980, employs five staff and has a turnover of around £500,000. It produces a range of print including flyers, leaflets, tickets, posters and stationery for a range of restaurants and retailers as well as passing trade.

“Last year the keyboard player from the Gorillaz came in and we ended up printing all the music for Damon Albarn’s ‘Monkey: Journey to the West’ show which took place at the Lincoln Center in New York. Word got around and as a result we now print for a couple of record companies and high profile people too,” said Rees.