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.

Padbury had not planned to buy another press. However, he said he was so impressed by the productivity and print quality of the XL he realised it would be a real asset to Westdale.

"Impetuous? A little, maybe, but it was all properly thought out," said

Padbury of his surprise purchase. He added the XL  was not cheap but it worked financially for the group, which has a 14m turnover.

"We're doing reasonably well, we're certainly very busy," said Padbury. "We have a lot of good clients who are putting plenty of business our way."

The XL will replace a two-year-old CD102-5. Padbury had been content to wait until 2006 for Ipex to update the CD102-5 until he saw the XL. "I confess to a little bit of impulse buying with the XL, purely because it was such a phenomenal press," he admitted.

Padbury met 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 next spring. It will go alongside the SM102-12P with CutStar, which is set to be installed in July.

Story by Darryl Danielli