The 15,000sph machine, which is being commissioned this week, is additional kit and will join an XL 75-5 at the Bristol-based firm’s 2,230sqm premises.
The Print Co chief operations officer Danny Lock said: “This press will help with our expansion, we’re unable to cope with only the one machine so we needed a second. We’ve been growing reasonably rapidly since we started up in December 2014.
“At the moment we’re putting work out to other sources to sustain our level of business so this investment will allow us to keep all of our work under our control.”
He added: “This time round we have elected to have four printing units and a coater because the existing five-colour can handle all the specials. The existing press has Axis Control but this time we are having Inpress Control 2 spectral measurement and adjustment on the run.
“Inpress Control 2 will speed up our makereadies and throughput and just generally smooth out anything we do. We’re not unhappy with the speed we’re currently getting but this will improve it again.”
The press also features the new Wallscreen XL and Intellistart 2, which calculates the optimum job flow and settings and provides a graphic display to help operators see exactly what is happening on press and any actions they must take.
The company is also installing Pressroom Manager, an integrated digital workflow that improves efficiency, speeds up set-up times and provides real time management data allowing for bottlenecks to be analysed and changed.
The business considered a range of alternatives, including LED options, before coming to its final decision on the new Speedmaster.
“At this point in time we didn’t feel that LED was the right option for us because we didn’t feel that the two presses would have integrated as one,” said Lock.
“We’re not unhappy with the units and system we already have and the water-based coating, but to introduce LED we’d have been using two different formats that would have given us two different results and we’d have been unable to split one job across two machines.”
The Print Co, which was established with the help of a Regional Growth Fund (RGF) grant, produces a wide range of print for both direct and trade customers including print buyers, design, marketing and advertising agencies and print management companies.
The press investment has enabled the business to take on new staff including additional press minders plus finishing and sales employees, taking its total headcount up to 24. Lock did not reveal the company’s turnover but said he expects the new Speedmaster to double its sales.
