Westdale moves quickly for XL 105

24 May 2004

The Westdale Press, part of the Westdale Printing Group, has signed a 1.4m deal for a six-unit Heidelberg XL 105 - the first UK order for Heidelberg's flagship new press to be made public.

The order was placed on the last day of Drupa, following managing director Alan Padbury's visit to rubberstamp an earlier deal on a SM102-12P with CutStar, the UK's first Suprasetter 105 CTP system and two ST300 stitchers.

"Impetuous, a little maybe, but it was all properly thought out," said Padbury of his surprise purchase.

The XL 105 will replace a two year-old CD102-5, which Padbury wasn't planning to update until Ipex 2006. "I must confess to a little bit of impulse buying with the XL, purely because it was such a phenomenal press."

Padbury added: "Its just a fantastic machine, it oozes state of the art technology and has everything you could want. It will be incredibly productive and I cannot see any work it couldn't easily handle."

Padbury had a meeting with Heidelberg on the Tuesday, and by 7am the next day works director Dean Pike was on his way to the show. "To make sure everything I was saying was true," said Padbury.

The XL is due for delivery spring 2005.

Story by Darryl Danielli

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