The company, which was founded in the centre of Cheltenham in 1996 and moved to its current purpose-built facility in Tewkesbury in 2004, will install the new Polar on 29 June. It will replace an existing Polar machine at the business.

This marks the third time since its inception that the 16-staff family firm has purchased a Polar system from Heidelberg. It has also bought eight presses from the manufacturer during this time and currently operates a B1 10-colour Speedmaster XL 106.

It also runs Ricoh digital kit, offers finishing services including folding, stitching, and binding, and produces print including brochures, booklets, catalogues, and promotional materials.

The latest Flowline guillotine model creates a highly precise edge with high throughput and is suitable for high speed, high accuracy cutting.

Heidelberg said that with exact jogging and sheet preparation, as well as automatic pallet stacking, the kit will enable Orchard Press Cheltenham to achieve over 70% more efficiency than with a standalone guillotine.

“Polar is a great product and [the] common interface makes life easy for staff,” said Orchard Press Cheltenham managing director Adrian Williams, who added that the business had continued working through the last 16 months despite some hurdles set by the coronavirus pandemic.

“We believe we’re in a strong position to come out of the pandemic in a better place, with a strong customer base,” he commented.

Orchard Press Cheltenham serves publishers and B2B clients and in normal times also counts tourism and events among its key sectors.