The Polar Print Group in Leicester has installed a CTP system from Premier Integrated Solutions (PIS).

The company, which prints football programmes for teams across the UK, invested in a Lotem 800V platesetter from CreoScitex, along with an Iris Wide proofer.

The system was installed four weeks ago in just four days, ready for the start of the football season.

Premier put it in very quickly they did extremely well, and we ran 500 plates on it in the first week, said Polar operations director Gerald Toon.

The group moved into a new factory 11 months ago, and is now beginning to invest in a range of equipment. We wanted to get the right working environment and now were getting back up to speed, said Toon.

The firm is in good company. Birmingham-based Imagery has bought over 1m of equipment this year, including a CreoScitex Lotem 800V CTP system installed by PIS six weeks ago.

The repro firm, which set up print company Imagery Direct Imaging 18 months ago, also purchased an eight-colour B1 Heidelberg perfecting press in May.

Managing director Ray Siviter expects to double his firms turnover next year, pulling in 2.5m. Weve doubled in size, taking on a unit next door to house the new equipment, and were starting to build up our work already, he said.