The Halesowen, West Midlands business hopes the new press will help it to produce a more comprehensive range of commercial print jobs for its customers nationwide.
The company replaced a five-colour B2 Sakurai machine after looking at Komori and Heidelberg options, saying that overall performance and projected return on investment swung the deal to the Speedmaster press.
The company had been reviewing its options over two years, said Mark Kay, who is joint owner and director with Jim Lynch. They paid around £1m for the new Speedmaster.
“The automatic colour package featuring Prinect Inpress Control was the deciding factor for us,” said Kay.
“It will allow us to run effortlessly to ISO 12647-2 standards, to minimise makeready times and attain consistently high production speeds.
“The press is right for us because we handle a broad range of work, including packaging on stocks from 80gsm through to 800 micron board. It will increase our productivity.”
Sales manager Mike Harrold added: “The Sakurai was six years old and served us well but had limitations on running speed, consistency and control.
“We looked at pretty much everything out there but had a good idea we'd go for the XL 75, which was the most expensive but runs at 15,000 sheets an hour even on heavy board.
“The Sakurai struggled to get 6,000, and even less on heavy board. We have won new customers – everybody wants a chunk of it – and we hope to add at least £200,000 to £300,000 to our turnover within a year or so. The new press is five-colour with coater so we can run specials, seal and coat in one pass.”
JPL Print & Design's 25 staff make a turnover of £2m and have built a mezzanine to add a new small-format digital unit, which is due to launch in May, along with a graphic design service.
The business also runs a B3 Heidelberg Speedmaster 52 and large-format kit including a Vutek QS Pro and a 3m-wide Zünd cutting table with interchangeable heads. It also runs finishing kit, guillotine and stitchline.
“Once everything is up and running we will be able to offer pretty much everything and be a one-stop shop,” Harrold said.
He added: “Having the extra unit for specials and a dedicated coater for fast turnrounds (we expect 80% of our work to be coated) will allow us to serve existing multi-colour work better.
“It will also help us to break into new markets. It is a flexible, fast press and a platform for growth for our company.”
JPL retains the Speedmaster SM 52 and will in future source its consumables from Heidelberg in a bid to give price stability and guaranteed availability of product and service.
It plans to open an in-house creative design studio next month and add more sales and marketing staff.
