The Rapida 74 will replace a six-colour MAN Roland 306 and should be up and running at the 24-staff commercial printer by the end of October. It will join Print 2000s existing four-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster 52.

Managing director Jim Stewart said the 2m-turnover company had considered comparable Mitsubishi, Heidelberg, MAN Roland and Komori machines, but selected the KBA purely on technical merit.

We spent a long time looking at these presses and in my opinion it is streets ahead of the others in terms of engineering, smoothness and ease of use, said Stewart, who also visited an existing Rapida 74 user in Vienna before making the decision.

Print 2000s press will be equipped with Densitronic S colour control, CIP3 interface, automatic air cleaning and technotrans ink pumping from drums.

The company will also install a Creo Lotem 400 platesetter with the latest Brisque front-end, which includes digital communication with customers.

We want to get away from hard proofs. It might take a bit of selling, but in a year or two I think that most of our customers will be comfortable accepting PDF proofs, said Stewart.

Print 2000 is located in the basement of the Skypark Centre in the city. Its customers include IBM, Royal Bank of Scotland, Kwik-Fit and Direct Line Insurance.

KBA UK sales director George Kendal said: Print 2000 is making its mark on the quality colour market in Scotland. This press is just the machine to take them forward.