The five-colour plus coating Speedmaster XL 75 was installed over the Christmas period and was up and running in January.

It replaced an old five-colour Heidelberg SM 74 at the Woolwich print business.

“Around 16 months ago we started looking for a new press, and then the pandemic happened. But we still wanted to upgrade, and this is a great, low mileage, machine so we went ahead,” explained Richline managing director Simon Russell.

“It’s an amazing bit of kit. The automation is unbelievable, it’s all-singing and all-dancing,” he said. 

“There are no transfer cylinders so you don’t get any marking. It’s great for uncoated stocks – we use a lot of weird and wonderful papers mainly from GF Smith.”

The business financed the circa £500k investment with the help of a CBILS loan arranged through Close Brothers Asset Finance.  

Russell said the coating facility would help speed up turnaround times for the firm’s customers, which are mainly trade clients.

“Instead of having to wait three hours to turn a job, we can do it in ten minutes. And we can finish it much quicker, which makes things so much quicker for our clients.

“It’s all gone really well and Exel and Close have both done a great job. I’ve always run the machine and I always will. It’s like having a Rolls-Royce!” he quipped.

Russell bought his original Speedmaster 74 from Ian Bendy, now UK sales director at Exel, when Bendy worked at Heidelberg and Exel has supplied a further two presses to the company since.

Bendy said he was delighted at the long association.

“This XL 75 is as nice a secondhand machine as you’ll find. It has less than 60m impressions and is highly-specified with the Wallscreen and Inpress Control,” he added.

The Speedmaster came out of Rosehill Press in Rotherham, which went into voluntary liquidation in the autumn of 2020.

Richline operates from the same factory as Jamm Print & Production, and Jamm has been one of the firm’s customers for more than 25 years.  

Jamm is planning to sell its site, but has a 12-month delayed completion clause in the sale document.

“We will have plenty of time to find somewhere else if and when they do sell it,” Russell added.

Richline has sales of around £500,000 and employs three staff. It has made use of the flexible furlough scheme during the pandemic as work levels have varied.

The firm also runs a two-colour GTO used for numbering and perforating. Trimming is handled in-house, while its long-term print finishing partner is United Print Finishers in Leyton.