The two presses - one six-color and the other seven-color - will be equipped with the KBA Logotronic management system, Densitronic Pro density and color measuring system as well as the KBA Qualitronic Pro inline sheet inspection system. Both presses also feature fully automatic plate changing, which changes all the plates on the press simultaneously, and have a top running speed of 15,000sph.

Mark Wright, president of Specialty Finishing, told PrintWeek: "I wish we could say the decision was based on all these cutting edge things, but the reality is that after talking with our customers, we're making decisions so we can deliver products for a lesser price -because that's how we've found growth in the marketplace."

Wright added that the goal for Specialty Finishing is to make the same carton everyone else makes for less money. "Right now for us it's about better, faster and cheaper," he said. "We want to cut costs to our customers by about 4% a year for the next three years. We looked at a lot of presses and we feel these will help us reach that goal."

Specialty Finishing was founded in 1927 and for most of its history was a traditional commercial/specialty printer. But as Wright noted, "We continue to see a decline in commercial printing, though there has been some stabilization." By moving into packaging we've been able to have a lot of growth and we feel they are still plenty of opportunities out there."

The company employs more than 140 staff and opened up a second facility, this one 400,000sqft, in 2007 to take advantage of its growing packaging business. "We have not had the need to reach out geographically because we've been able to find additional customers in our area," Wright said.

Of course, being in a very cost-sensitive segment of the printing industry means that things like rising paper prices can't necessarily being passed on to clients. "We try to make up for those increases by increasing our efficiency and by diversifying the materials we're making available to our clients," Wright explained. "The worldwide paper market has come back with some lower density sheets that have helped us out in our market. And as long as we can keep that price under control there's room for growth."