The Halesworth, Suffolk-based, which employs about 100 people and also does magazine work, is running the 18,000sph machine alcohol-free.

Managing director Mike Cross said: "It's mainly for environmental reasons as it's something our customers are looking for and requiring.

"I'm sceptical it would save money – you don't have the cost of the alcohol but it requires a bit more cleaning and downtime, but it's certainly more environmentally friendly."

Inpress Control, which is a spectrophotometer built into the press, has already reduced Micropress' makeready times by 10-20%, depending on the complexity of the job, with a comparable reduction in waste sheets at start up.

Heidelberg has claimed Inpress Control saves an estimated 10 minutes per makeready over an ImageControl spectrophotometer and 20 minutes over a handheld spectrophotometer, with the AxisControl option somewhere between those two.

Micropress also has two other Heidelberg machines, a four-colour SM 102 running with reduced alcohol, and an SM 74-5.

Cross added that the company might upgrade one of the existing machines later this year and would go for an in-built spectrophotometer in the replacement press as well.