Arriving at Route 1 and its parent group Bluetree’s Rotherham plant in mid August, the machine has now been assembled and the first test sheets have been run, including the first duplex sheet to run on a Landa press in Europe.
Mark Young, head of Route 1, is overseeing preparations of the press before it is ready for use on live jobs by the end of the year, with potential applications such as flyers and book covers currently being considered.
A number of rigorous tests will now go through the press every day.
Young said: “Our customers demand high quality and fast turnarounds and the Landa sits perfectly within our portfolio to provide that.
“It is essentially an offset [quality] digital press, but it is an entirely new type of machine. We are training our operators now, having promoted from within to find staff from a diverse range of backgrounds in different printing methods. We are confident in their experience.
“You will never have seen anything like this, it is standing out in terms of its high quality and will help us continue to offer those fast turnarounds to clients.”
The machine is part of a wider ambition to make Route 1 the “best trade printer in the UK”, according to Young.
Using patented Nanographic technology, Landa claims the S10P can produce up to 95% of Pantones when running process plus OBG. Taken in a CMYK configuration by Route 1, it prints double-sided B1 sheets at 3,250sph, with a high-speed 6,500sph option set to be available in future.
Landa states that its CMYK inkset can match 84% of Pantone colours, 30% more than standard offset inks.
The machine will predominantly serve Route 1, with its first applications set to be for Route 1 clients, though Young said it would complement the wider capabilities at Bluetree’s 9,290sqm South Yorkshire base for the wider group as well.
Route One and sister company Instantprint have benefited from a summer spending spree thanks to Bluetree Group, which has invested more than £6m on a new Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 perfector, as well as a number of supporting post-press machines.
The £41.5m-turnover group has also been running a recruitment drive that has now taken its headcount to more than 400 members of staff.
